Louds and Dragons
by Thefoxmage
Summary: When most of Lincoln and Clyde's friends can't make a role playing game session, Lucy suggests they ask their sisters if they'd like to play. Rated T for fantasy violence, possible swearing, and potential scenes of horror in future episodes. May change in the future, but nothing is set in stone.
1. Chapter 1

_AN: For those curious, I will be using mostly 5th Edition D&D for the basic rules of the game the Louds will be playing here, but will sometimes take liberties for the sake of the story. Forgive me in advance if I get something very wrong._

* * *

The Adventure Begins

It was early afternoon on Saturday and Lincoln was milling about the garage of the Loud House, as excited as a kid on Christmas. He has set out a few card tables together, set a stack of books on one of them, arranged folding chairs around the tables, and finally brought a series of shoeboxes down into the room. The first has a stack of grid paper with fairly elaborate maps drawn upon them under a folded cardboard screen. The second had a plethora of plastic and metal figurines of various monsters, humans and human like beings. And the third was filled with dice of all shapes and sizes. He was getting ready for an afternoon of playing a fantasy role playing game with his friends and one of his sisters. They had given the game a try a few weeks back and they were HOOKED. It was Lincoln's turn to act as game master (a role he frequently took and enjoyed), so he was getting the game setup while he waited for the other players. "Let's see...what kind of snacks? Chips? Pretzels? Popcorn?"

"I vote popcorn." Lucy said suddenly from the door leading to the house, making Lincoln jump in surprise.

"Gah! Oh. Hey Lucy. All ready to play?" He asked, once his heart rate returned to normal.

"Indeed. Lucinda is prepared to continue her magical study of death." The little goth replied, pulling her character sheet from behind her back. Lincoln nodded with a smile as she took her seat and set her little character figurine on the table. He stepped off into the kitchen to get the snacks and the soda while Lucy flipped through the spell portion of the Player Handbook. As Lincoln was carrying a stack of bowls filled with all three kinds of snacks. Clyde had run up to the open garage, looking a little alarmed.

"Hey Clyde!" Lincoln greeted his friend cheerfully, when he noticed his friend's expression. "...what's wrong?"

"Hey Lincoln...the others can't make it today…" His bespectacled friend explained, which brought the white haired boy's good mood down in an instant. "They all had last minute family things they needed to attend."

"Awww man…" The middle Loud groaned when he heard this. "This adventure won't be as much fun with just two people…"

"What are we going to do?"

"Why not ask our other sisters?" Lucy suggested, not looking away from the book. "Ooh. Vampiric Touch. I'm getting that spell next level." The two nerdy kids looked to one another for a moment. Lacking any other ideas, they shut the garage door and head inside. They decide to split up to cover more ground (with Lincoln offering to speak with Lori so Clyde wouldn't have a nose bleed in her presence).

* * *

Luna was hanging upside down from her upper bunk as she thought, Lincoln having gone to her first (as she was the most easy going of the older sisters). "Hmmmm. Sounds interesting, little dude, but I'mma pass this time. I have a gig to prepare for. Maybe next game."

"Alright. Thanks anyway Luna."

* * *

"So what you are inquiring…" Lisa said as she looked through a microscope while standing on a stool, Clyde standing at the door to her and Lily's room. "...is if I were interested in engaging in a tabletop activity involving the use of chance, strategy and the utilization of my imagination?"

"That...uh...sounds about right." Clyde replied, though he was uncertain.

"I am afraid I must decline. Such frivolous use of my time during this vital phase of my research would be most folly."

* * *

"Ugh. Hard pass." Lori commented after Lincoln had asked her while she was doing her nails in her room. She was laying on her bed, while Leni was on her own, looking through a magazine.

"Are you sure, Lori? It would be fun…"

"Hmph. As much as fun as doing homework…" Lori replied with a roll of her eyes.

"I'll play." Leni piped up, getting Lincoln and Lori's attention.

"Really? Are you sure?" Her only brother asked.

"Yeah. I'm not doing anything and it sounds like playing pretend, and playing pretend is fun." This brought a smile to his face and a bit of a smirk on Lori's.

"Oh, this I have to see…" She muttered quietly as Lincoln led his sweet but dim older sister to the garage.

* * *

"Hmmm. A fantasy game, huh?" Luan asked as she touched up Mr Coconut's face paint in the kitchen, Clyde holding the dummy so she could work faster and easier. "Where we play whoever we want?"

"That's right." He replied with a hopeful nod.

"Any limits?"

"Well, outside of a few rule based restrictions, only your imagination." Luan was silent for a moment as she dabbed a little blush on her wooden partner, pondering the issue.

"Yer gonna regret saying that, Goggles." Mr Coconuts said, his eyes turning toward Clyde, though his head remained still so Luan could work.

"Oh hush, Mr Coconuts." Luan scolded him with a giggle. "Ah, why not? It sounds like a dice time. I'll be down soon; no dragon my feet on this one." She joked, laughing at her joke, Clyde chuckling as well.

* * *

"Hmmm. I like the sound of the game." Lana commented as she played with Hops in the middle of the room she shared with Lola, while Lola was engaged in a tea party with her stuffed animals. "But all that reading sounds boring…"

"It's not that bad. It's mostly for the character creation or for reference with regard to spells." He explained to her. Lana still seemed on the fence as she stroked her amphibian friend. Lincoln thought for a moment, then had an idea. "You know...there is a playable race in the game called dragonborn...pretty much a dragon person you could play."

"Really!? I can be a dragon guy!?" Lana asked excitedly. "Why didn't you say so in the first place!?" She jumped up from the floor and ran off to the garage, quick as Lynn. Pleased with his convincing, he then turned to Lola.

"What about you, Lola? You said you wanted to work on your reading, and you like playing pretend already."

"Yes...but it sounds like a Lisa sort of game. Not a ME sort of game…" Lola commented in a slightly snobbish way.

"...you could play a princess." Lincoln informed her with a knowing smirk.

"...keep talking." The pageant participant said, her interest piqued.

* * *

"...HAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHAAHAHAHAHA!" Lynn laughed as she rolled around on her bed, tears spilling from her eyes. Clyde just stood in the middle of her room, a slight bemused look on his face. All he did was ask Lynn if she wanted to play their role playing game. That was five minutes ago.

"So….is that a maybe?" He asked meekly as soon as she started to calm down. That brought a fresh wave of hysterics from her. It took her another three minutes to stop, her face getting red.

"Hahahahaha….Thanks, Clydesdale. I needed that. But no. I'm more a gal of action. Egghead games like that...well, they're more your speed. No offense."

"Uh...none taken?" He replied awkwardly before he left the room. Out in the hall, he saw Lily toddling around. "Oh, hey Lily. I guess you're a little too young to play...but maybe you'd like to watch us play?" He asked her, kneeling down to her level. She clapped and cooed, holding her arms up to him. "I'll take that as a yes." He said with soft laugh, picking the baby up and taking her downstairs.

When Clyde arrived, he found Lincoln, Lana, Lola, Leni and Luan already there. The one brother was already trying to help Leni and Lola, while Lucy was getting Lana off on the right track. Luan was working on her character sheet on her own, her pen in her mouth as she thought. "Room for a spectator?" Clyde asked as he set Lily in a high chair that was already in the garage.

"Sure. There's always room for Lily." Lincoln replied, the baby giggling her approval. "So, you were saying, Leni?"

"Oh. Well, I don't really want to be the battly kind of character. I'd rather be the helpy sort." The ditzy teen explained. "Is that ok?"

"Well, the team will need a healer, so you could be a cleric and provide support." He told her. "That way, you don't really have to fight much, except to save your character's life maybe."

"Oh! That sounds perfect!" She said, starting to write on the character sheet. "Cle...ric."

"Lincoln...I don't see a princess class...you said I could play a princess…." Lola whined, looking sadly at her brother.

"Well, princess would be your title, not your class." He told her. "So you could still be a princess."

"Oh...well...what class is really good?"

"That...really depends...are you looking for something physically strong, stealthy, magical?"

"Oh! Magical! A magical princess!" Lola said, smiling broadly when she heard the word magic.

"Heh. Well, the group already has a wizard, so maybe a sorceress would work for you." Lincoln reasoned. "After all, charisma is key for them, and you'll certainly want to be a beautiful princess."

"You know me well~" Lola said in a sing song voice as she started to take notes.

"Clyde...could you help me out a sec?" Lana asked, seeing that Lincoln was so busy right now.

"Sure thing. What's up, Lana?" Clyde asked, moving over to see what Lana needed.

"I noticed that if I choose beastmaster for my ranger class, I can get an animal friend, right?" She asked, to which the african american boy nodded. "And I could get this as my animal friend, right?" He turned to a certain page in the monster manual.

"Hmmmm. Well, it is a ¼ challenge rating, which is your limit, so sure." He answered confidently.

"Cool. So my question is...could I ride it?" She asked hopefully. Clyde blinked, looking between her and the books, then up at Lincoln.

"Uh...Buddy...we need a quick ruling…" Clyde said, not wanting to step on his friend's toes with this case. He was the game master after all, so it was his final call.

"Excuse me a moment…" Lincoln told Lola and Leni before he moved over to the group of four pouring over the books. He heard her request, pondered it for a moment, did some calculations on his phone, looked over her character her sheet, and mulled it over for a few minutes and then nodded. "I don't see why not, as long as you have the gold pieces for the barding and saddle, and don't go over it's carry capacity."

"Yes!"

"Does that mean I can get a pony!?" Lola asked, her eyes all wide.

"If you have the gold pieces, which you should at fourth level."

"Yaaay!"

"Well, if we're all gonna be horsing around, I should get something to ride too." Luan commented with a snicker. "Can't be sneaking around everywhere, after all."

"Good idea. It would make it easier for your characters to get around quicker." Clyde said.

"Um...Lincoln...you said we were fourth level...what does that mean?" Leni asked. Lincoln kinda sighed, but kept his patience as he returned to her to help her with her character. He knew she wasn't really familiar with these kind of games and, much like with teaching her to drive, he just needed to be patient. Unfortunately for him, Lola, Lana and sometimes even Luan needed his and Clyde's help. It was a little overwhelming for him, a fact which kind of amused Lori as she watched from the door. She knew Lincoln would have had a hard time teaching Leni a game like this, but by the same token, knew her brother was persistent. A fighter, so to speak, like any other Loud. He'd get through eventually, but in the meantime, she could enjoy the show. It took them all about forty five minutes to get their characters squared away, by which point, Lola's patience with the game was starting to wane.

"Are we gonna start or what!?" She asked angrily, her elbow on one of the tables as she leaned against it, looking bored.

"We're just about to start." The exhausted middle son said as he moved the box of figurines onto the desk. "Just pick out the miniature that resembles your character the most and we can begin." While they dug through the little character idols, he quickly got his own act together. Once everyone had their figures and character sheets, he cleared his throat, everyone giving him their attention.

* * *

The Port City of Orintar. A thriving city of elves and humans, working together in order to prosper. This is owed to Orintar being a key point of ship based trade on the continent of Illivar, trade ships entering and leaving the docks on almost a daily basis. At its peak, it was one of the wealthiest cities in the continent, if not the world. The key word, unfortunately, being was. Of late, many strange things had been happening at the docks: cargo had gone missing mid transit. Dock workers disappearing late into the night. Some ships even being sunk right in the harbor. The town's economy had started to suffer as a result…

* * *

"Oh, that is so sad…" Leni commented, interrupting Lincoln's set up.

"Ssssh!" The group hushed her.

"Sorry." She said sheepishly.

* * *

...Something had to be done. Enter, riding upon a pony and horse respectively, a dwarf man and a human woman with some elfish features to her. The dwarf had dark skin, with short black hair and a thick, fluffy beard. He was built like a mountain and wore hides and furs on his body. At his side was a shining iron warhammer. His steely eyes were locked on the path in front of him, ready for action. The woman had long black hair that obscured most of her face, making her expression near impossible to determine. She wore a black hood and cloak to further obscure her face, along with a midnight blue robe. Her hands and a little of her chin and neck were all that could be seen of her, and they were quite pale. She had an air of melancholy about her.

* * *

"Nice descriptions, Linc." Luan complimented, clapping softly.

"Thanks, but that's actually how Clyde and Lucy described their own characters." Lincoln replied.

"Oooo I can't wait until we get introduced." Lana said, shivering with excitement.

"Yeah! Hurry up already!" Lola ordered, just as eager as Lana but a lot less patient.

"Ok! Ok!" The white haired game master said before muttering. "...some people don't appreciate a good setup…"

"What was that….?"

"Nothing!"

* * *

The two of them had heard of the troubles Orintar had been having and sallied forth to see…

* * *

"Wait...what does Sally the fourth have to do with this?" Leni interjected.

"Sssssh!"

"Sorry…"

* * *

...sallied forth to see if they could offer their assistance. Upon arrived and stabling their mounts, they noticed there were only a few others taking up residence there: a pony, a few other horses, and a giant frog, for some reason… ("Gee. I wonder who the frog belongs to..." Lola said sarcastically, while Lana simply smiling brightly and proudly, clearly saying 'Yeah. All me.')

With their faithful steeds in their respective homes, our two heroes make their way to the seaside tavern; one of the few places left in the city that was surviving, if barely. The oaken sign hanging over the door said Triton's Gem. The scenery was quite beautiful, with the docks overlooking the crystal clear water, with the bright blue sky overhead…

* * *

"Oh! That sounds lovely. We should visit someday." Leni commented with a smile.

"Leni!" Everyone apart from Lincoln snapped.

"What?"

* * *

...the dwarf and half elf strode into the tavern. From the moment they first stepped inside, they noticed a few people in there that looked very out of place…

* * *

"Do you guys have your character descriptions done?" Lincoln asked. Leni and Luan nodded, handing him their portion of their character sheets.

"Uh….I kinda drew a picture in that spot….is that cool?" Lana inquired, a little nervous.

"Me too…" Lola added. Their older brother took the sheets from them for a look and smiled at them.

"I think I can work with that." He told them, which brightened them up immensely.

* * *

The first was a small, draconic woman with orangish scales and fin like crests where the ears would be on a human. She was sitting at the bar, wearing a dark brown tunic and matching overall like pants, black boots and gloves, and had a scimitar at her side. She looked kind of upset and was bemoaning the fact that the proprietor wouldn't let her bring her animal companion into the tavern. The second was a tall, slender elf with long golden hair, fair skin and pointed ears. She was wearing a sparkling pink gown with white trim. She wore a golden bejeweled necklace around her neck, a couple silver bracelets, a gold and diamond ring, and a silver tiara on her head. She had the clear look of someone who didn't even want to be there, but didn't really have much of a choice. The third was a gnomish woman, with shoulder length blonde hair. She was wearing a gold colored cloak with a hood (which she had down at the time), with a fine silk sundress underneath. Around her neck was a chain, with golden symbol of Sune, goddess of beauty. She seemed to talking to some of the other patrons about her deity; not to convert them. Just because it was a subject she liked to talk about...at length. And off to the side, was little halfling woman with brown hair done in a ponytail. She was wearing a tunic that was half dark red and half black, and pants that matched, but were on opposite sides, and little black boots. She had her feet resting on the table in front of her, seemingly just chilling out. However, while she was 'relaxing', she was directing a tiny hand of force to drop a tiny slab of butter onto the floor as a drunken patron started to stumble past her table. He stepped right onto the pad and slipped, falling flat on his back. However, he was so drunk, he didn't feel a thing. The halfling snickered a bit while playing innocent. "And you were worried about us standing out, lassie." The dwarf commented with a chuckle.

"...comparatively, I still do stand out." The cloaked half elf commented quietly. The bold, stocky, yet short man stepped forward with a smile as he spoke to the elf woman before him.

"Top of the morning to you, madam. I am Clyvor Bruinback. And you are?" The blonde elf just looked at the dwarf with something akin to disgust, then glanced around the tavern.

"Uh...why is this savage talking to me?" Clyvor looked surprised, and hurt, at this woman's rudeness.

"...that 'savage' is my friend and ally…" The pale, hooded woman said, scowling as she stepped forward. "...and I will not have you treating him so poorly."

"Um...excuse me!? Do you know who I AM!?"

"...do you know who I am?"

"Should I care?"

"There's your answer…" (The entire table snickered as Lucy grinned. Lola was glaring daggers at her gothic older sister.)

"Hurumph! I AM Princess Lolavina, Princess of the Kingdom of Sugarland!" The elf woman answered in the most stuck up manner possible, her nose in the air.

"...I am Lucinda." The woman in the dark cloak introduced herself.

"Ask me if I care!"

"Do you care?" The halfling off to the side asked without missing a beat, chuckling.

"WHO ASKED YOU!?" Lolavina shrieked loudly.

"You did. You told me to ask you if you care." The elven princess sputtered and stumbled on her words in her anger and the realization she had just said that. The halfling hopped out of her seat and approached Clyvor and Lucinda. "Howdy ho, potential friends. I am Luanne Wisecracker. Pleased to meet you." She held her hand out to them, Clyvor eagerly shaking her hand. Lucinda simply looked at her hand, but gave a soft hello in reply.

"A pleasure, ma'am." The dwarf said. "So what brings you here?"

"Nothing really. Just wandering about." The little trickster commented in reply. "How about you?"

"We're here looking to offer our assistance to the people of this port." Lucinda answered in a monotone. "Strange things have been happening as of late. People disappearing in the middle of the night from the docks. Cargo going missing. Ships sunk."

"Oh! I heard about that too." The blonde haired gnome said, turning excitedly to face the small group. "Lincoln just-"

* * *

"Leni…" Lincoln groaned as he face palmed. "...your character doesn't know me. I'm not even in the game."

"But I know you." The ditzy teen replied with a smile.

"Yes, but you're playing your character right now." Clyde interjected, seeing the frustration growing on Lincoln's face, as well as Lola's. "And you have to use what your character knows, not what you know."

"Oooooh…..so can I still say I heard about what he said?"

"Yes. That's fine. News travels after all." Her little brother replied. "Thanks buddy." He said, looking to his equally nerdy friend.

"Anytime."

* * *

"Oh! I heard about that too." The small cleric said, turning excitedly to face the group. "It's so sad to hear them having such a bad time."

"You speak the truth there, ma'am." Clyvor said. "Might I ask your name?"

"I am Lenina, follower of Sune." The chipper gnome replied. "Goddess of Love and Beauty."

"A goddess after my own heart." Lolavina commented with a smirk.

"I'm more a Bahamut gal myself." The dragon woman interjected, turning and hopping off her stool. "I'm Lanore, by the way."

"Charmed." The hardy hammer wielder answered politely, looking over the group before them. "Ye know...this job might be a might too big for just the two of us, Lucinda."

"I agree. We don't know what we are up against." The arcane student said with a nod.

"So, what do you think, lasses? Who among you wants to join us in getting to the bottom o' this mess and saving the town!?" Clyvor inquired, grinning and punching the air with his fist.

"I'm in." Lenina said, stepping over beside Lucinda.

"You can count on me and Hops Sr." The dragonborn said with all eagerness, a toothy grin on her face.

"Hops Sr?"

"...he's not here...they made me put him in the stable…" Lanore told them, her face falling. "...city folk just don't respect our animal friends…" She added with a disapproving shake of her head.

"...is there a reward?" Luanne questioned, her arms crossed as she considered the issue.

"I assume as much." Lucinda spoke up, fielding this question for her dwarven ally. "This is the livelihood of the town we're talking about here."

"I'm in."

"Hmph. Well, I'm NOT!" The elven princess said in a snotty, snobbish manner. "The plight of peasants is of no concern to a princess."

"You can't be serious, mi lassie." The dark skinned dwarf said indignantly. "The lives of many are at stake here. If things don't change, more innocent folks could die or go missing. Good people could be losing their jobs, their homes…"

"THAT sounds like commoner problems!" Lolavina said with finality as she turned her back to the group and lifted her nose into the air. Lanore and Clyvor glared at the spoiled princess, while Luanne and Lenina looked sadly at her.

"Very well. We do not require her assistance." Lucinda said flatly, motioning the others to join her at a nearby table.

* * *

"Are you sure this is the route you want to go, Lola?" Clyde inquired with concern. He was worried that she was effectively taking herself out of the game for the sake of playing her character. Lola simply nodded, in spite of the exasperated expressions of most her fellow players.

"Don't worry about it, Clyde." Lucy said, a ghost of a smile on her face. "Just let her play her way. It'll work out in the end." Now almost all eyes turned to the usually morose little girl in confusion.

"Thank you, Lucy." The grateful pageant participant said, smiling somewhat smugly.

"Uh….Lucy...should you be encouraging her?" Lana asked in a hushed voice.

"Just trust me." Was all the response she got back in return, leaving the young handy woman to just shrug. The five of them got together to plan, while Lola leaned over to whisper something to Lincoln.

* * *

"So, how are we going to go about this?" Luanne inquired, using one of her darts to clean under her fingernails.

"Well, the way I see, we're having two options for solving this mystery. One: we stake out the docks in the evening and wait for whatever is causing the problems to show up. Or two, we offer our services for security aboard a cargo ship." Clyvor said, looking to each of his fellow adventurers at the table in turn as he spoke.

"Oh! I vote we go sailing! I've never been on a boat before!" Lenina chirped, nearly leaping from her seat. Lucinda and Clyvor had to shush her, as she was being somewhat loud in her excitement.

"Well, neither option are guaranteed…" Luanne reasoned as she tapped her chin with the feathered end of the darts. "...but I would say our best bet would be to stake out the ship."

"If I can take Hops Sr with me, then I'm fine with that." The dragonborn woman added.

"It is unanimous, it seems." The pale wizard woman said with a nod. "Let us contact the port authority and see which cargo ship is next to leave."

"Right!" The others said in unison before they all rose and hurried out the door, leaving Lolavina in the tavern.

It took the crew a few hours to speak to someone at the port authority and get themselves set up aboard the next ship out; a ship hauling shipments of ores and ingots. The captain was more than willing to have some extra swords (so to speak) aboard, as the thefts and sinkings were making his crew quite nervous.

As the galleon was shoving off to sea, Clyvor had set up a lookout rotation throughout the day: some of them would stay above deck to keep watch while others were remain below deck to watch the cargo hold, with a few rest periods for naps and food and drink. Several years later, well after midnight, the group was split into two groups: Lenina, Lucinda and Clyvor were above decks, while Luanne, Lanore and her giant frog companion hung out in the hold. The hammer wielding dwarf was patrolling around the ship, looking over the side while Lucinda stood beside the helmsman quietly. Lenina, on the other hand, was leaning against the railing with a big smile as she looked out at the ocean. "See anything, Lenina?" Clyvor asked as his patrol brought him close to where she was.

"Just a lot of pretty water." She commented, sighing as she gazed upon the reflection of the starry night sky against the dark, sparkly water. "Such a lovely sight…"

"...well, you're right there, lassie, but we need to focus." The dwarf said with a slight frown. "We don't know what may be out there, so we can't allow ourselves to be distracted."

"Oh! Right." The somewhat air headed cleric said, moving to the other side of the ship. As she did, a few thin, spike like fins started to glide through the water toward the ship. With their size and the dark night, it would have been exceptionally difficult to see, even for one who could see in the dark.

* * *

Meanwhile, down in the hold, Luanne was lounging around on top of a stack of crates while keeping a lookout and Lanore was sharing some roasted meat with Hops Sr. "Well, this is kinda boring." The halfling prankster said as she looked up at the ceiling of the hold. "...but by the same token, I'm not gonna gripe about getting paid for doing hardly anything."

"It's not so bad. It's nice and quiet here." The draconic lady said, patting her amphibious friend on the head. The moment she said that, there was a thump of wood and metal from nearby. The two of them stop speaking, turning toward the noise. Luanne silently leaped over to the next crate stack, drawing her dagger, while Lanore unseathed her scimitar and Hops Sr croaked threateningly. The rogue carefully peeked over the side and blinked at what she saw. The elf princess from earlier was on the floor, rubbing her backside and grumbling to herself. "What is it?" The friend of animals whispered.

"A royal pain." Luanne responded with a snicker, putting her dagger away. Lolavina sneered up at her as Lanore moved over and around the cargo for a look.

"What are you doing here, princess!?"

"None of your business, lizard lips!" The prissy princess snapped.

"Oh, I think it is our business." The dragonborn responded with a toothy growl. "We're looking for someone stealing cargo. And here we find YOU hiding out down here. Casing the place, perhaps?"

"How dare you!?" The elf princess rose rapidly, her face red and furious. "I am no thief! I am a princess!"

"Then why are you hiding away in the cargo hold!?"

"None of your business!"

* * *

While their characters were arguing in game, Lola and Lana were screaming at each other in reality too. Clyde was leaning away from them, worried it would escalate into violence. Luan and Lucy were just nibbling on popcorn, this kind of thing being the norm there. Leni was trying to calm them down, with limited success, while Lincoln was looking more exasperated by the moment. Just as Lola and Lana raised their fists, the snow haired DM put his foot down. "That's enough!" He snapped, getting their attention. "If you want your characters to argue, fine. If you're gonna argue out of character, ok. I get it. You argue a lot. But you are NOT going to get physical in the middle of our game!" He slammed one of his hands down on the table behind his game master screen as he yelled that. While neither twin was intimidated by their brother, they were surprised to hear him yelling at them like this. "Now, are you two going to keep your hands to yourselves, or do we have to hold up the game just to separate you two?"

"...we'll keep our hands to ourselves…." They both groaned in unison, if only because they wanted to keep playing and see where this was going. Lori was quite surprised with how her little brother handled that. Perhaps he was learning from her.

* * *

"None of your business!"

"Seems pretty suspicious to me!"

"I say you look suspicious, scale skin!"

"Now now...Your highness, you have to admit it looks pretty bad for you." Luanne said calmly, trying to defuse the situation. "I mean, sneaking aboard the ship, hiding out in the hold...as a rogue myself, that seems pretty shady…"

"You look shady!" Lolavina snapped in reply, too angry to think of a proper comeback.

"Thanks." The roguish halfling said with a prideful smile, which only further irritated the already irate princess. While Lolavina and Lanore were arguing loudly, none of them notice the blade sticking through the hull of the ship and starting to cut a hole into the hold.

* * *

"Ok, you three. Roll perception checks." Lincoln declared, looking to the twins and Luan, the three of them looking at him like he had grown a second head.

"A what?" Lana inquired.

"Oh. That's how you determine how things go in the game; the roll of the dice. In this case, a twenty sided dice in this case." The one son explained. "You roll the dice, add any bonuses and/or penalties to it and that is the result. Then I compare it to the difficulty check to see if you succeed or fail." The sisters nodded as Clyde handed them each some dice. As they were still learning, Lincoln decided to cut them a break and not have them roll for disadvantage since they were making so much noise. Lola rolled first.

"I got a...8. Is that good?"

"It's...decent." Clyde replied, leaning over to her sheet. "But don't forget to add your wisdom modifier. Since you have 13 wisdom, that gives you +1."

"I got an 11." Lana said, smiling at the twenty sided die before her.

"I got a 4, plus 1...that's five for me." Luan sighed, slightly disheartened.

"...sorry guys, but it looks like you don't notice anything." Lincoln told them apologetically. Just then, Hops let out a loud croak and hopped in place on Lana's character sheet.

"What is it, pal?" The animal loving Loud inquired as she looked at the paper. "Hey! Hops Sr has alright perception. Can he have a try?"

"Sure." With that, Hops grabbed Lana's die in his front flippers and rolled it across the table. The middle Loud chuckled a bit, thinking that was kind of cute.

"13, plus 2. That's a fifteen." Lana announced before looking up to their game master.

"Good roll, little guy." He told little frog, who looked pretty pleased with himself.

* * *

Hops Sr blinked and turned his head when he heard the sound of wood falling to the wooden floor. He spotted the newly made hole in the hull and croaked loudly. Lanore, Luanne, and Lolavina all looked toward the giant frog, then toward the gaping hole. "Where'd that come from?" Lolavina asked in surprise.

"I dunno…" Luanne replied. "...this is 'hole-ly' new to me." She jested, snickering. The dragonborn and elf simply ignored the pun and moved closer to the gap for a look outside. The moment the were about five feet from the hole, a purple scaled, fish faced creature suddenly appeared in the nearly created entrance, gurgling loudly. The three of them screamed in surprise…

* * *

...and the players screamed the same way when Lincoln revealed the figurine to his sisters. After the shock wore off, Luan and Lana both laughed it off. "Good one, bro." The family joker said, giving him a slap on the back. Lola, on the other hand, wasn't laughing. In fact she was crying. The eleven year old brother noticed this and immediately went into big brother mode, moving around the table beside her.

"Lola...are you ok?" He asked calmly, putting a comforting arm around the prissy twin. She sniffled a little and nodded.

"Yeah...I'll be ok...you just scared me…" She replied, looking up at him with teary eyes.

"Sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you like that."

"Guess you did a little too good with the story and suspense there, Lincoln." Luan said, chuckling a little. The white haired boy doesn't respond, focusing his efforts on calming Lola down enough to continue the game. As this was happening, Rita had arrived at the door to the garage, where Lori was still standing, watching without their knowledge still.

"Lori? Is everything ok?" The Loud mother asked, a look of concern on her face. "I heard screaming…"

"It's ok, Mom." The eldest sister said in a somewhat quiet voice. "They're just playing a game and Lincoln kinda spooked them. He's got it under control." Rita leaned to one side to look past Lori, just to make absolutely certain. At the sight of the pageant princess and her only son hugging, she smiled and nodded to Lori before she left them to their game. With Lola feeling better now, Lincoln went back behind his screen and cleared his throat to regain everyone's attention. "... after recovering from the shock, Luanne, Lanore and Lolavina notice three of those fish men were crawling through the hole, one by one. Above deck, four similar creatures had climbed their way onto the deck, armed with spears and nets, swords and slimy shields. They scream something is a strange, gurgling language that no one understood, but it was clear they had hostile intentions."

"Well, that escalated quickly…" Lana commented in surprise.

"Roll for initiative everyone." Lincoln announced with a grin, as now the game was about to pick up. Everyone grabbed their dice and threw their rolls.

"Hah! A total of 18!" Luan cheered, her hands raised in celebration.

"14 for me." Clyde announce, a satisfied smile on his face.

"12. That'll do." Lucy said.

"I got a 4." Leni said after looking at her own die. "Is that good?"

"Did you remember to add your dex modifier?" Her younger brother asked.

"My what?"

"If your dexterity score is high enough, you get a bonus modifier to certain checks." Lucy explained, looking at her sheet. "It looks like you have a +1 modifier. That makes your roll a 5."

"Is THAT good?"

"Kinda." Clyde interjected. "As the group healer, it means you can help patch us up after the monsters have their turn, unless they roll even lower."

"Oh! That's good then." Leni said with a simple smile on her face.

"16!" Lana announced with a grin.

"Ribbit." Her froggy friend said, patting the die roll of 11.

'I dunno what's stranger.' Lori thought to herself from the doorway. 'That Lana is letting her frog play along with her...or that the frog is picking up the game so quick.'

"I got a ten total…" Lola kinda grumbled. Lincoln nodded as he rolled for each of the monsters.

"...alright. Luan, you get to go first."

"Cool, but can I roll stealth first? See if they see me from up on the crates?"

"Good idea. Go for it. And don't forget to roll for advantage." Lincoln replied with a smile. The joking sister rolled two d20s. The first roll was a 9, the second an 18. "Heh. Even without your bonuses, the monsters don't see you." Luan smirked as glanced down at the board, where her figurine was set up.

* * *

Lanore pulled her blade from its sheath upon seeing the fish monsters forcing their way inside, her faithful frog leering angrily at them as well. Lolavina looked horrified at the turn of events. Luanne kept low to the tops of the crates, drawing a dart from her tunic. She angled herself slightly behind the aquatic assailants, then hurled the little missile at the back of the front creature's head. It was a direct hit, struck with such force that the fishy villain was slain instantly. The remaining two look startled and horrified, but don't have time to look for the source of the dart. Lanore hurried forward and slashed at the kuo toa to the right. Her scimitar left a deep gash in the creature, wounding it, but not killing it. Its ally took the chance to swing its net at her. The thick hempen net wrapped around the dragonborn's legs and force her to trip and fall to the ground. Before it could make another move, Hops Sr sprang into the fray, biting down on the fish creature assaulting his friend. The two struggle and thrash for a moment before the giant frog swallowed the fighting monster whole. ("Wow. I didn't know you liked sushi, Hops." Lana commented, chuckling along with her amphibious associate.)

There was only one more kuo toa standing over the prone ranger, who had taken the chance to thrust his sword at her. Fortunately, it was only a glancing blow. No serious damage. The elf princess just stood there, frozen in fear. She was no warrior; she had never seen a proper battle before. She didn't even know how to fight. But here she was, being witness to actual combat, seeing others get hurt and even die right before her eyes.

* * *

"Seriously!? You're skipping your turn!?" Lana screamed in borderline rage.

"My character's never seen such fighting before! It's only natural!" Lola defended herself. Her messy twin was about to really tear her a new one, but that was when Lucy intervened by putting a hand on Lana's shoulder..

"Let it go." She said simply, shaking her head. "You're doing well enough down there."

"...yeah, I guess…" The hat wearing twin said, though she was still salty about her sisters lack of help in this encounter.

* * *

Back on the upper decks, things were somewhat chaotic. The koa tua were going after the crew of the ship, meaning Clyvor, Lucinda and Lenina had to protect them along with repelling the fish monsters. The dwarf barbarian drew out his warhammer and ran at the nearest koa tua, with a screeching battle cry like a very gruff eagle. His iron hammer slammed into the creature's head, killing it almost instantly. Its allies charged at him, intent on eliminating the biggest threat.

"Mystic powers, strike down my foes with forceful strikes. Magic missile!" Lucinda chanted from above, raining a small torrent of little force spheres at the invaders. All three struck one of the net carriers, the multiple impacts enough to take it down easily. The remaining two were still able to get to Clyvor, attacking with spear and sword alike. He was able to evade the first attack, but the second put a spear head into his leg.

"Here. Let me fix that." Lenina offered, moving over to the barely hurt barbarian. "With Sune's blessing." Her hand glowed with a holy light as Clyvor's wound healed instantly. Her work there done, she moved herself back to the crew, trying to keep they calm while still keeping track of her friends. She didn't like to fight, so she thought this was the better course of action for her. ("Still being more useful than Princess Do Nothing…" Lana commented snidely) The ship's guards were able to wound the last two fish monsters on the main deck with a volley of arrows. Overall, things seemed to be going well...except for the new group of them climbed up the ship on the other side.

* * *

Back down in the hold, Lanore, Hops Sr and Luanne had things pretty well under control, or so they thought. Between the halfling sneak's incredible damage output, and some teamwork from the dragonborn and her giant frog, the kuo toa attempting to crawl through were getting picked off with ease. Lolavina was still petrified with fright, unable to make so much as a move, but they didn't really need her help at the moment. "Well, this isn't too hard." The copper scaled dragon woman commented with a smirk as she cut down the latest fish monster to try and creep through.

"I could do this all day." Luanne muttered to herself, kind of juggling a few darts as she waited for the next contestant on 'Catch the Dart', feeling pretty cocky herself. It was then a bigger (though not by much) kuo toa, carrying what looked like a spiked pincer on a stick, crawled through the hole they had made. It 'bellowed' a blurbed out battlecry as it stepped onto the wooden floor. Having been wiping the floor with the enemy so far, Luanne and Lanore were far from concerned. The halfling backstabber hurled a dart at the unaware creature, but this shot ended up going wide and missed. "...Oops."

"No worries. I got this." The draconic woman said as she engaged this new threat with her trusted sword. The more powerful fish monster attempted to repel her attack with its staff, but her dueling skills allowed her to deal a flesh wound to it. However, the kuo toa was able to respond with a thrust of its pincer staff. It was, unfortunately, a direct, though thankfully not devastating, hit, which caused the pincers to snap shut on the dragonborn's neck. "Ack! Lolavina! Little help here!?" She cried out as the aquatic raider started to pull her toward the hole in the hull. Between the stress of witnessing violence and death for herself and now Lanore screaming for help, Lolavina reacted without thinking. She closed her eyes and gestured a hand toward the kuo toa, a ray of heat shooting from her fingers. The beam didn't quite hit the monster menacing them, but it did blast the handle of the staff, reducing a section of it to ash (She had actually missed by a very narrow margin, but Lincoln had secretly thrown her a bone to keep her from getting discouraged). The dragonkin woman breathed a sigh of relief as she backed away from the oceanic humanoid. "Thanks…" The blonde haired royal pain didn't respond, so surprised she had actually done it.

Determined to make up for her previous miss, the stealthy dart thrower took careful aim this time and hurled a small projectile right at the side of the kuo toas head. This time, her shot was true, hitting the fish faced shock trooper. However, even with sneak attack damage, she couldn't quite down it. Angered by its pain, the kuo toa charged at Lanore, who was trying to pull the spiky loop from around her neck. Fortunately, Hops Sr was right there, ramming the creature back with its head. While not especially strong, the force of his leaping slam was enough to make the creature stumble back. ("I guess that makes him a bull-frog." Luan joked, getting groans from her family, even Hops giving her as 'seriously!?' look) With the slight boost of confidence from her earlier 'success', Lolavina waved her hand in the air, creating a trio of magical projectiles, which tracked on to the wounded raider. Three direct hits to the creatures scaly body and it fell to the ground, finally dead.

"I did it? I did it!" Lolavina cheered, jumping in place and throwing her arms up in celebration.

"Don't break your arm patting yourself on the back...it's not over yet." Lanore said as she broke the entrapping part of the pincer staff from around her neck, even more fish creatures starting to mill into the hold.

* * *

"By Moradin, they just keep coming!" Clyvor commented as he bull rushed one of the water-inhabiting monster over the edge before caving in the skull of another with his war hammer. "How are ya holding up, lasses!?"

"Do not fret about me." Lucinda replied, sending wave after wave of magic missiles at the invaders. "I am well."

"We're alright here." Lenina called out as she bolstered the defenses of one of the ship's npc protectors with a shield of faith spell and healing another wounded one. Around that time, one of the kuo toa shock troopers carrying the capture stick had climbed its way onto the deck, screaming in its gurgly language at the barbarian currently mashing his allies like potatoes. Seeing this one was stronger than the mooks he had been slaying so far, Clyvor decided it was time to go all out. The dwarf channeled his inner fury and allowed it to flare and explode within him before he charged at the larger of the fish monsters. He gripped his hammer with both hands and made a reckless attack against the creature. The iron bludgeoning tool connected right with the face of the kuo toa, not only knocking it off its flippered feet, but clear off the ship, its lifeless corpse starfishing through the air.

* * *

As Lincoln started to remove the figurine, Luan grinned and playing the Goofy yell through her phone. Everyone at the table burst out laughing at that, and even Lori had to cover her mouth to keep her hysterics in line. It took a few minutes for everyone to calm back down from that. "But seriously, what just happened there?" Luan asked, wiping a tear of laughter from her eyes.

"Yeah. How did Clyde take that guy out in one shot?" Lana followed up. In answer, the bespectacled boy pointed at his d20, which was on 20.

"When you roll a twenty on an attack roll, or less with certain fighter subtypes, you get a critical hit, allowing you to deal twice as much damage as you could before." He elaborated for them. "And Clyvor being a barbarian, he can tank a lot of damage, and dish it out just as much."

"Whoa…" Lana and Lola were in awe of that.

"Nice shot." Luan said, ruffling Clyde's hair. "You're a lucky guy."

* * *

Lucinda watched the muscular aquatic creature fly away with a bit of a smirk, while Lenina's jaw hung open. She could see her new friend was strong, but this went beyond what she could have even imagined. While she was distracted, one of the kuo toa raiders managed to climb up to the railing right behind her. It reached its slimy hand out to grab her around the neck, but the feeling of the cold scaly skin on her own caused the gnome to scream, quickly draw her mace and smash the offending creature in the face with it. The impact caused the fishy assailant to let go and fall back toward the sea, knocking two of its fellows down with it. "Oops…" The follower of Sune said quietly as she looked over the edge. "Sorry! You startled me! I'm not usually a violent person…."

"I wouldn't worry about it." The dark robed half elf told her as she unloaded the last of her magic missiles on the most recent wave of invaders. "Clyvor, I fear my magical energy runs low…"

"Do the best you can, Lucinda, me lass." The dwarf replied, fighting as best he could with Lenina providing healing support and the ship's guards physical support. However, the attacking force was swarming the craft like locusts. And things weren't much better below either. Even with Lolavina finally helping and the fact only a few kuo toa could crawl through at a time, they seemed endless in their numbers. Luanne was almost out of darts, and Lanore and her amphibian cohort was getting tired.

"Don't suppose anyone has a plan at this point…" The dragonborn inquired, breathing heavily as finished off yet another kuo toa with her blade.

"I have one, but we need to clear these guppies from the entry." The dart throwing halfling spoke up.

"Allow me!" The elf princess declared, pointing a finger toward the hole where the fish people were forcing their way in. "Scorching ray!" A trio of fiery beams flew from her finger, striking one of the invaders dead on, and only managing glancing hits on two others. "Oh, come on!"

"Looks like it's up to me." The draconic ranger took a deep breath while facing the hole in the hull, before expelling a spray of acid right at them. The breath attack disintegrated the two wounded kuo toas and hit two others attempting to get in right in the face, making them fall back into the sea.

"Perfect!" Luanne exclaimed with a grin before she pushed over a pile of crates ("Nice strength check, Luan." Clyde complimented the family comedian). The heavy boxes of ore fell right onto the bodies of the raiders already slain and creating a barrier between them and the monsters.

"...that was a good idea." Lolavina commented. "Why didn't we do that in the first place!?"

"It probably won't hold them for long." Lanore said. "But at least we can take a moment to catch our breaths and think of another plan."

"Maybe we should head topside with our new friends." The roguish young woman suggested, looking toward the ceiling.

"Then who will be here to protect the cargo?"

"Hey...did it suddenly get quiet out there?" Lolavina pointed out, noting the lack of scurrying and scratching from outside. The rogue and ranger both turning their attention to the blocked hole and realized that she was right. It was strangely silent out there. It stood to reason that the creatures would be trying to push the crates out of the way, or start stealing from their blockade, but no. For some reason, they seemed to be giving up.

"Did….did we win?" Lanore asked, very uncertain.

"It feels more like the calm before the storm…" A concerned Luanne answered.

"You know what...maybe we better head up after all…" Lolavina, Luanne and Hops Sr all nodded in agreement before they all rushed to the stairway leading up. Meanwhile, it started to look like they were going to be overwhelmed by the raiding aquatic humanoids. Clyvor's rage had ended, Lucinda had to hold back on her spells as she was nearly out of magic, and Lenina was having trouble keeping up. However, this was when the other half of the group had arrived on the battlefield. Before they could really engage the enemy, however, the air was filled with the sound of a horn. Upon hearing the sound, all the fish creatures jumped ship, much to everyone's surprise.

"Is it over?" Lenina inquired nervously. ("Not till the fishman jumps." Luan joked, without missing a beat). Before any of her allies could answer, they could hear the sound of blurbling chanting. Lucinda moved over to the side, looking down into the water to see a large kuo toa wearing a seaweed green robe and carrying a staff with a pointed conch shell on the end.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" She commented with a frown. "Brace yourselves everyone…" Just then, something big had sprang from the dark water. A large, light green, scaly crustacean creature slammed down onto the main deck, with long dark pink tendrils sticking out of its mouth area. It 'roared' before slamming its large pincers against the wooden floor.

"Glory be…." Clyvor gasped.

"W...what is that!?" Lolavina asked in horror.

"A mutant lobster on steroids, I wager…" Luanne replied, half in jest, half in fright.

"A chuul!" Lanore said with a glare, leaping onto Hops Sr's back.

* * *

"How does your character know that?" Leni asked with a raised eyebrow. "I thought Lincoln said-"

"Lana's character has aberrations as her favored enemy." Lincoln interjected, while the handyperson twin nodded.

"As for how I know...well, I asked Linc in private to see if she would know." She admitted with a shrug.

"Which she knows it's her favored enemy and its name, but that's about it." The Loud DM explained further. "But I digress. Roll for initiative."

* * *

"Alright lads and lasses...prepare yourselves...this is probably going to get rough." The dwarf barbarian said, gripping his hammer in both hands. "You light armored sorts keep away from its front and claws…"

"No need to tell me twice…" The elven princess commented with a gulp, looking at those large, spiked claws. Lanore was the first to make a move, riding atop her froggy friend into the fray. She slashed at the shell covered leg of the monstrous lobster creature. Fueled by her hatred of such an unnatural creature, she was able to break through its armor and deal some damage to it.

"Extor lisorins…" Lucinda muttered to herself in a dark language, a skeletal hand surrounded in a icy, mist like aura appearing before her. The hand flew through the air and clamped its bony fingers on the Chuul's back, sending the chill of death through it...kind of. The giant sized monster of the sea took it's opportunity to strike next, snapping its two pincers at the dragonborn ranger. She managed to avoid the first claw by ducking her head, but the second swing caught her around the middle. She struggled for a few seconds as its wriggling mouth tentacles stretched toward her. Fortunately, she was strong enough to pull herself free of the monster's claw before they could touch her. Hops Sr took the opportunity to bite the creature's ankle, but the chuul was hardly fazed by it.

"Ok….you can do this, Lolavina…" The golden haired elf muttered to herself before pointing toward their jumbo sized foe. "Scorching Ray!" Three beams were launched from her fingers, with two barely singeing the beast and the third going wide.

* * *

"GAH! I hate these dice!" Lola shouted, hurling the handful of six and twenty sided dice in front of her across the room.

"Hey!" Lincoln shouted angrily as Luan was forced to duck to avoid getting hit by the dice. "Lola, don't throw the dice like that!"

"I'm just so frustrated! They've been coming up bad these last few rolls!"

"I understand that and why you're frustrated." Lincoln said, trying not to keep screaming at her. "But you can't throw the dice like that, because 1) they're my dice and you could damage them doing that, and 2) more importantly, you could have hit Luan with them." Lola just huffed and grumbled at that. "Like I said, I get it. I really do. I've had plenty of bad rolls, some of which ended up with my characters dying before. It's just part of the game. The dice won't always fall the way you want them."

"Hmph….I guess…sorry, Lincoln. Sorry, Luan…."

* * *

With screeching battle cry, Clyvor unleashed his rage from within as he charged at the aquatic horror menacing the ship. He swung his hammer with both hands and, with his great strength, smashed a section of the Chuul's shell and dealt significant damage to it. Seeing an opportunity, Luanne stealthily crept around the monster while it was distracted by Lanore and Clyvor, pulling her dagger from her tunic. Once she was behind it, she hopped onto its back and attempted to plunge the knife right into it. Unfortunately, she couldn't penetrate its natural armor with her weapon. Even less fortunately for her, it got the mutant lobster's attention. Wishing to continue her more supportive role, Lenina moved around beside her draconic ally and surrounded her in a shield of divine energy. "Thanks, Lenina…"

"You're welcome." The gnome cleric replied cheerfully. A bit more cheerfully than the situation warranted. However, there were more important things to focus on at the moment. Lanore took another swing at the abomination, but her scimitar simply bounced off its shell this time. Seeing her utter lack of damage, Lanore decided to disengage from the enemy and back away with Hops Sr to reconsider her options. Meanwhile, up near the wheel, the morose wizard was in quiet thought. She didn't have many damaging spells left, so she would need to find another way to help the others...and she had just the way.

"Ocuta obscuris." Lucinda chanted softly. Just as the Chuul raised a pincer to swat Luanne, the monster suddenly stopped and screeched, raising its snappers to its eyes. The others weren't entirely sure what happened until the monstrosity took a swing at the rogue on its back, and missed by a mile. Lucinda had blinded the monster. It took another swipe, this time in Clyvor's direction, but once more wasn't even close.

"Whew. That was a surprise." Luanne commented as she tried to hang onto the now furious crustatean's back. "I bet he didn't see that coming. Hahaha." In the heat of battle, no one heard her attempt at a joke (though their players either chuckled or rolled their eyes). Lolavina decided to hedge her bets and use something a little more guaranteed: magic missiles. They weren't as damaging as her scorching ray, but they hit for certain. From her hand, three magic darts flew and pelted the chitinous shell of the monster all together. The dwarf barbarian continued to boldly battle with the Chuul, swinging his warhammer and striking it in the chest. It wasn't as damaging as before, but it was still more damage to the horror from the sea. Not planning on trying to stab it again, the sneaky little lady decided to try something new. She sprang off the monster's back, pulling a small diamond from her pocket. She concentrates on it for a moment, the gem slowly turning into a sphere of lightning. She smirked and hurled the orb at the giant sized lobster monster's back. Her aim was true this time and the magical orb exploded against its back, making the Chuul screech in pain.

"Whoa! I didn't know you could do that!" Lanore exclaimed excitedly when she saw the arcs of electricity coming from the impact site.

"Nice, isn't it? Pity it's kinda expensive to cast." Luanne said. "Guess you get what you pay for with my spells."

"With Sune's blessing…" Lenina chanted, healing the injuries that the dragonkin gal had taken earlier.

"Thanks again. Well, if we're gonna be showing off some hidden tricks, I got one of my own." Lanore commented as she pulled a light crossbow from behind her back. As she loaded a bolt into it, she muttered something under her breath, a green glow surrounding the ammo. "Time to face nature's wrath, abomination." She said, pointing the crossbow at the Chuul. "Hail of thorns!" The bolt flew from the bow and struck the monster dead on. The moment the arrow impacted, it burst in a shower of small, sharp thorns, peppering the creature's hide. Unfortunately, it also pelted Clyvor, who was standing right next to it. "Oops...sorry, Clyvor…" Lanore apologized, wincing as she saw her friend getting riddled with tiny thorns.

"No need to be frettin', lassie." The dwarf replied, brushing off the thorns with zero cares given. "It'll be taking more than that to hurt me."

"Keep it up. I think we almost have it." Lucinda said in a deadpan tone, conjuring another skeletal hand to harm it with necrotic energy. It wasn't much, but it was the best she could do at the moment. Unfortunately, the spell that blinded the monster had worn off, and it was madder than ever. It leered down at the barbarian hammering away at its midsection and swiped a claw at him. It was a direct hit, dealing some damage and catching Clyvor in its grasp. Before anyone could act, the next pincer snapped shut on Lenina, lifting her off the ground as well.

"Agh! Help!" The gnome screamed, kicking her legs as she squirmed in the monster's vice like grip. However, she couldn't escape. Clyvor, on the other hand, was able to force the monster's claw open with his strength alone. The dwarf was soon free and landing on his feet on the deck. With only the cleric to focus on, the Chuul focused its mouth tentacles on her. The moment they touched her head, she started to feel a stiffness in her whole body. She was paralyzed.

"Lenina!" Clyvor cried in horror.

"Get your claws off her!" Lolavina screamed as she unleashed another torrent of magic missiles onto the sea monster. Her words had no effect on the monster, but the magic darts did. Lenina was still in its grasp though. Clyvor recollected his warhammer and, tired though he was, was able to tap into one last barbaric rage, making the same gambit he had made against the kuo toa shock trooper earlier. He recklessly swung his weapon at the Chuul's arm, roaring in absolute fury. Once more, luck was on his side as his hammer slammed into the monster's arm, smashing through the shell and and soft, meaty interior, causing the arm with the claw holding Lenina to fall to the deck.

"Ha ha! Nice swing, Clyvor!" Lanore cheered.

"Now let's try and finish this!" Luanne declared as she drew a second diamond from her pocket. From that gemstone, a second orb was created; this one made of acid. She tossed the magical sphere like a grenade. It splattered on the creature's head, pouring searing acid all over it. "Bullseye!"

"It's still standing though…" Lanore commented as Lenina started to recover from the paralyzing poison, and she was right. The mutant lobster was still on its many legs, but barely. Lanore loaded a new bolt into the crossbow and took careful aim before letting the bolt fly. It struck the Chuul right between the eyes. The hideous creature gave a shrill squeal before it fell to the deck with a thud, not moving any further.

"I….Is it dead?" Lolavina asked nervously as Lucinda strolled down from the helm for a closer look. She investigated the corpse for a moment before she nodded.

"It is...I wonder what happens to the soul of such a creature when it dies…" She mused to herself, stroking her chin a bit.

"Who's got the butter?" Luanne inquired with a grin as she looked at the dead Chuul.

"That was quite a rumble...glad it's over now…" An exhausted Clyvor said as he took several deep breaths.

"The cargo's safe, the crew is safe, and the bad guys were stopped. I'd say it's a big win." Lanore spoke up with a smile as she climbed off her frog, patting the amphibian on the head.

"That was really scary…." Lenina commented as she got to her little feet. "But at least the worst is over now." The moment she said that, the ship suddenly jerked hard, nearly knocking everyone off their feet. Lucinda and Clyvor ran over to look over the side. The same robed fishman was floating in the water, waving its staff and chanting a spell, a massive whirlpool starting to form under them. The dwarf gasped and made a mad dash for the wheel. He grabbed the steering device and, with his great strength, tried to get the ship out of the swirling water vortex.

* * *

"Oh no!" Clyde cried as he saw the twenty sided die's result. A one. "A critical failure…."

"A what?" Leni asked, a little confused.

"It's the opposite of a natural twenty, a natural one." The white haired boy explained as he pat the dejected african american boy beside him. "When that happens, that means you automatically fail at whatever you are doing and, with certain checks, something bad can happen too."

"Yikes...I see what you mean, Lincoln…" Lola said with a wince. "...glad I never got one of those."

* * *

The wheel snapped right off the column into the dwarf's hands, the brawny barbarian looking down at the wheel. "...oops." Now the vessel was absolutely helpless as the whirlpool formed and started to suck them all down into the ocean. As the craft spun faster and faster, some of the crew were thrown off the deck and Lolavina nearly went with them. Fortunately, Hops Sr caught her before she hit the water, using his long, sticky tongue. Unfortunately, it only delayed the inevitable, as the ship was soon sunk and seven of them were underwater. With the lack of light, the bubbles from the sinking vessel and the murkiness of the water, no one other than Hops Sr could see; and the frog didn't like what he saw. The few remaining kuo toa were picking people off one by one in the water, bringing them to some underwater city made of caves and coral far below the surface. Clyvor and Lanore tried to fight back, but between being tired and underwater, they didn't stand a chance. The two of them, Lucinda, Lolavina, Lenina and Luanne were all taken prisoner by the raiding fish folk.

* * *

"...that's it?" Lola asked, almost in outrage. "The adventure ends with us getting captured!?"

"I gotta side with Lola on this one...that is kinda lame…" Lana admitted with a frown.

"Now now, calm down." Lincoln told them, smiling lightly as he shook his head. "The adventure isn't over. It's just beginning."

"It is?" They asked in surprise.

"Yep. This was just the first encounter of the adventure. The next part will be starting soon, but I thought after such a rough fight, it would be a good time for a quick break. A chance for everyone to refill their drinks, use the restroom, or whatever. And when you're ready, you can replenish your spells per day and hit points. Treat it as a long rest. You're probably going to need it for this next part." Lori quickly made herself scarce before Clyde got up to get himself another soda. She had to admit that, while the game still wasn't for her, there seemed to be more fun there than she had thought. Maybe it would be worth a try sometime...maybe. Meanwhile, Lucy and Luan had departed to use the restroom, Lucy using the one Lana had put in the garage during the time Lori moved in there. "So, what do you think of the game so far?" he asked his two younger sisters and one older sister present.

"I'm having all kinds of fun!" Lana replied, hopping onto her stool. "My character was so cool fighting those fish guys, and Hops kicked all kinds of butt too." Hops simply ribbited in agreement. "And meeting Clyde and Lucy's characters was pretty cool too."

"I'm having fun too, though it still seems pretty complicated…" Leni said, looking down at her character sheet a little nervously.

"Don't worry, Leni. A few hiccups aside, you're doing fine." Her younger brother told her, gently patting her hand. "You're playing the role you wanted to and doing it wonderfully."

"Yeah. Lenina did a great job keeping the crew protected, and keeping Clyvor and Lanore healthy against that boss monster." The hat wearing twin confirmed.

"Well, as much as I am enjoying my princess character…I can't say I care much for how much chance plays a role in the game." Lola said, looking down at the dice pile with a look of scorn.

"Sorry, Lola, but that's how the game works." The one son said with a shrug. "Give it some time. Maybe the dice will be a little kinder during this next phase." The prissy twin looked skeptical, but she was also super eager to see where this story went. Lana went away to get Hops some more water as Lucy and Luan returned.

"How about you, Luan? Enjoying the game so far?"

"Sure am. I'm sure I will have all kinds of new material for my act by the end of it." Luan said with a giggle, getting a soft laugh from Lincoln too.

"And how about you, Lily? It wasn't too harsh or scary for-" Lincoln started to ask, but then he noticed the Loud infant was fast asleep in her high chair. "...when and how did she fall asleep?"

"Well, you were telling a story the entire time, and telling Lily a story helps her fall asleep." Leni pointed out.

"...ok, but the yelling didn't wake her up?" Lincoln inquired, scratching his head in confusion.

"I'm as shocked as you are." Lucy commented. "But someone should probably get her to her crib before the next part of the game."

"I'll do it." Leni volunteered with a smile, picking up the adorable baby and taking her upstairs. The one son took the opportunity to set up the next set of maps and turn the page to the next chapter of the adventure. To him, this first part was just a warm up, to see how his sisters would do; and they did very well in his eyes. But now was the time for the real challenge...

* * *

_AN: And thus starts the Louds' foray into Dungeons and Dragons (or a similar game in their universe). Here's hoping you enjoyed this chapter. I realize there are a lot of breaks in the story, as it jumps between the game, scenes in the game, and reality. There were a few more, but as they were simply one sentence, I simply out them in ( ) so's not to break the flow of the story any further. Hope it helped a little. If you would like me to post each of the main chatacter's character stats at the end of each chapter, let me know and I will do so. Also, please let me know if you have any questions, comments or concerns regarding this story._

_And on a side note, how is it the Loud family completely forgot about the second toilet that Lana installed in the garage in the show?_


	2. City of the Kuo Toa pt 1

The City of the Kuo Toa pt 1

After the five sisters and Clyde had taken care of what they needed to, and Lincoln set up the next maps, the Loud and the bespectacled boy were finally gathered back around the table. The white haired DM looked over his friend and family with a big smile. "Welcome back. Is everyone ready?"

"Ready and raring." Clyde replied with a grin.

"Lucinda is prepared." Lucy answered.

"Set them up so we can knock them down, bro." Luan said, looking down at her character sheet.

"Let's get em!" Piped up Lana. Hops simply ribbited to show he was prepared.

"I am ready to face whatever you have planned with royal elegance." Lola said, in a very spoiled royal kind of voice.

"I'm ready." Leni finally said, her trademark smile on her face.

"You got your new spells prepped, Leni, Lucy?" The little goth girl nodded.

"Wait...I can change my spells?"

"Yeah. Cleric can prepare new spells after a long rest, as can Druids." Lincoln explained to his slightly dimmer older sister.

"And Wizards can prepare spells from their spellbook." Lucy interjected. "Meanwhile, Sorcerers, Rangers and similar classes can only change spells after gaining a level."

"Oh. Do I have to? I like my spells."

"That's fine, Leni. You don't need to. It's just an option." Her game leading brother replied, opening his notebook. "When last we left off, the group had been taken prisoner by the raiding Kuo Toas, forcibly taken back to their city. The only one left behind was Hops Sr, as none of the fish people wanted to get anywhere near the frog that was literally eating them for breakfast."

"My buddy." Lana grinned, patting her frog on the back.

"The group wake up one by one, finding themselves held in separate cells…"

* * *

Lenina groaned slowly as she opened her eyes, finding herself in what looked like a little cave made from coral. She blinked as she sat up on her uncomfortable cot, looking around the small makeshift cell. Apart from the cot, all there was in the room was a bucket. Her only way out was barred by large bones that made a makeshift cell door. Despite the city being underwater, there was no water anywhere here. Across from her, she could see Clyvor trying to force his own door open. Unfortunately, even with his great strength, he couldn't budge the door. "Clyvor?"

"Lenina? You doing ok, Lassie?"

"I think so...I'm a little confused though...where are we?"

"Truth be told, I'm not sure...I think those beasties took us back home."

"That is a safe bet." Lucinda butted in from the room beside Lenina.

"Lucinda? Are you over there?"

"I am. Unfortunately, the Kuo Toa have me tied up…" She replied, sounding upset about it. "Probably so I cannot use my spells."

"And they took our gear…" Luanne complained from her own prison chamber. "They even found the lockpicks I hid in my boots…" ("Stupid snoopy fish men…." Luan grumbled).

"This place is disgusting…" Lolavina whined, having the cell on Clyvor's other side.

"I think that's the least of our worries, princess…" Lanore said derisively, opposite the royal pain.

"Well, at least we know everyone is alright." The gnome cleric said with a certain optimism.

"True enough." Clyvor agreed, backing away from the bone cell as he pondered their predicament.

"I hope Hops Sr is ok…" The dragonborn lady said in a tone of worry.

"I'm sure he is fine." Luanne reassured her. Before they could continue any further conversation or plan any further escape, they heard the sound of plodding feet along stone like floors headed their way. Moments later, the same large, robed fish person appeared in the hall that was lined with their cells. He was wearing the same seaweed green robe, as well as shoulder pads shaped like lobster claws. In his hand was the same conch shell staff. He looked a combination of smug and angry all at once. Flanking either side of him were buff fish people, decked out in armor made of turtle and giant crab shells, and wielding spears taller than they were. The lead Kuo Toa stopped between the cells holding Lenina and Clyvor, looking between them.

"Well well…" The head of the school gurgled in a sort of common. "You've made our lives quite difficult back there…"

"You mean when we kept you from kidnapping innocent, hardworking sailors, and stealing their cargo!?" Clyvor snapped.

"...that is a minor annoyance compared to the bigger transgression, but it did slow progress down, yes."

"Bigger transgression? To what are you referring to?" Lucinda inquired from her cot.

"...the slaying of our god." The Kuo Toa leader explained with pure venom, his expression one of fury.

"Your god? The chuul?" Lanore asked in pure confusion.

"Yes. The being sent by the fates to lead our people to greatness...the provider of the Kuo Toa...the crustacean god." He elaborated to his gobsmacked captives. "We had given him the best of our prisoners as sacrifices, as our way of thanking him...but you have the nerve to kill our grand god!"

"Grand….god?" Lenina asked, her face turning red as it contorted into a rage to rival Clyvor's. "Grand GOD!?" The little devotee of Sune ran into the bone bars, startling both the Kuo Toa priest and her teammates by her sudden act of aggression. "How dare you!? How can you have the audacity to claim a MORTAL being like that…creature...is a being of divinity!? That is absolutely blasphemy, worshipping a false god like that! May Sune and the rest of the pantheon have mercy on your souls!"

* * *

Utter silence followed the tirade that came out of Leni's mouth, everyone in the room and the one Loud just outside the room looking completely shocked. Lincoln's mouth hung open and Lana was shifting away from her older sister, a little frightened. "Leni…" was all Lucy could say.

"What?" She asked, tilting her head. "My character is passionate about religion, like how I am about fashion. It's only natural she would be offended hearing that."

"...that was amazing." Clyde finally said, with a slightly nervous, but pleased grin. "THAT is roleplaying."

"Didn't know you had it in you." Luan commented after she snapped out of her shock, walking around the table to pat her older sister on the back.

"You tell them, sister." Lola told her, looking proud of Leni. The fashionista blushed a little at the compliments, while Lincoln recovered from seeing Leni absolutely tearing into the Kuo Toa priest figure enough to continue the game.

* * *

"False god? False god!? The crustacean god has done more for the Kuo Toa people than ANY of your so called pantheon! He had given us food, supplies, slaves! What has your gods ever done for us!? NOTHING!" The priest screamed right into Lenina's face, who didn't even flinch in her outrage. "And now, with the death of our god...we will have to find a new one to follow…" Upon hearing that, the gnome looked like she was about to have an aneurism. Not only were they following a false god before, but now they were simply going to find a NEW ONE!? As if they were replacing a ripped gown!? She was about one step away from a fury. "As for you all, you will stand trial for the murder of the crustacean god. Tried, then summarily executed."

"What!? What happened to a fair trial!?" Luanne yelled from her cell.

"The fact you are even being given a trial is fair enough." The head of the fish folk snapped in reply.

"You can't do this to me!" Lolavina screamed, banging her fists against the bone bars. "I am royalty!" The priest of the crustacean ex-god suddenly turned to look at her, with surprise and interest.

"Royalty? Really?" He inquired, moving over in front of the elf sorceress.

"I am PrIncess Lolavina of Sugarland! PRIN-CESS!" She screeched loudly. A few seconds after she screamed that and saw the misshapen grin on the priest's face, she came to the realization that she should NOT have said that. "...uh…..just kidding?" She added lamely, with a scared grin on her face.

"Well well, your highness. You are absolutely right. You shouldn't be treated as a common prisoner."

"...really?"

"Of course. You should be taken to a special room...where you can be prepared to be the first sacrifice to our potential new god."

"...me and my big mouth…" Lolavina muttered to herself as the priest's bodyguards open the gate and dragged her out of her cell.

"Let go of her, you muppets!" Clyvor shouted at them as they escorted the screaming princess down the hall.

* * *

"They're not Muppets, Clyde. Muppets are cute puppety things." Leni pointed out. "They're mean, ugly fish people."

"It's an insult that means a foolish person." The african american boy explained. "Often used in Britain, Ireland and Scotland."

"Ooooooh….does that mean they are called The Fools there?"

* * *

"Save your energy, Clyvor…" Lucinda called out from her cot. "Let us focus on getting out of this mess. We can rescue Lolavina after."

"So….anyone got any ideas?" Lanore inquired, sounding hopeful.

"You think you can melt the bars with that breath of yours?" The halfling lady asked, looking over toward the dragonborn's cell.

"I doubt it, if Clyvor can't even put a dent in them."

"Maybe you can swipe the guards' keys when they come by?" Clyvor suggested of the little rogue.

"Possibly...do you think they put anti magic fields in these cells?"

"If they bothered to bind my arms to me, I feel they did not." The dark robed half elf replied.

"Then it looks like we're stuck playing the waiting game then…" The dwarf barbarian commented glumly, sitting on his dirty old cot.

* * *

Meanwhile, Lolavina had been forcibly taken clear across the palace/temple that the group had been being held prisoner within. She squirmed and struggled for everything she was worth, but it wasn't enough. She couldn't escape the priest's guards. They brought her to a room that was a far cry from her cell. It looked more like it was the room of a royal guest or visiting dignitary. There was a large canopy bed made of the bones of some kinds of sea creatures, furniture that was as fine as one could make from wrecked ships, and tarnished silver candlesticks. If it didn't look so grim and dark in the room, it could possibly be nice. The extra long chain with the waist sized manacle on it wasn't helping matters. The two burly guards held the elven princess while the priest locked the manacle around her middle. "There we go. You should be quite comfortable in here...until we are ready to prepare you for the sacrifice." Lolavina pulled on the chain in a futile attempt to escape as the lead fishman strode out of the room. "Make yourself comfortable, your highness...while you still can."

"I hope you all end up in a fish stew!" Lolavina spat at them as they shut and locked the door behind them. She huffed as she started pacing about. She was both outraged and frightened beyond belief. They were going to sacrifice her to...who knows what? If these things would worship as hideous creature like that chuul, the pampered princess didn't even want to consider what could be next. She needed to get out of there, and she knew how she was going to do it. It was just a matter of when she could do it.

* * *

Hours passed, though it felt like days to everyone imprisoned. Lenina, Lucinda and Luanne were calmly waiting, not that Lucinda didn't have a choice in the matter. Lenina passed her time praying to her goddess, while Luanne lay on her bed, relaxing as she waited for her chance. Clyvor, Lanore, and Lolavina, however, were all bundles of nerves. The dwarf was tapping his foot against the stone floor, wishing something would happen, while Lanore was worried about her amphibian friend, pacing about and wishing she could get SOME idea of whether he was alright or not. The elven princess also couldn't sit or lay still; wandering all over the room, flopping down on the surprisingly comfortable bed, biting her nails as she shuffled about. The suspense was agony to most of them. Fortunately for them all, they didn't need to wait much longer. "Alright, you god killers…" A small fish person guard grumbled to the remaining five adventurers, though none of them could understand undercommon. "Your last meals...not that you deserve them!" He announced, holding a tray of soggy bread slices and little water skins. At each cell, he would toss a piece of bread and one of the containers into their holding cells, letting them fall to the ground.

"Hey! Can't even let us get them ourselves!" Lanore objected angrily. The Kuo Toa ignored her, throwing Lenina's last meal at her. Hearing what was going on, Clyvor was already at the bars. The guard, however, decided to throw his bread right over his head.

"Fetch." He glorbed derisively before moving on.

"I'll have the beef wellington with the asparagus and roasted fingerling potatoes, please." Luanne joked, only to have her nearly liquid bread get slopped right beside her cot. "...the service here stinks." The fish faced prison guard simply sneered at her before turning his back to her to face Lucinda. This was the moment Luanne was waiting for. She picked up her water skin and poured some of the water into her hand. After muttering a few words, the water froze into the form of a knife. The arcane trickster held the knife carefully as the guard opened Lucinda's cell and, the moment he put his keys back on his belt, she hurled it at his back. Her aim was spot on, the dagger hitting the aquatic watchman right in the back. Upon impact, it exploded in a burst of ice shards, finishing him off. The guard only had a chance to gasp before falling flat on his face.

"Fascinating." The dark cloaked half elf commented, as she watched the life fade from the Kuo Toa.

"You're just full of surprises, lassie." Clyvor said, grinning toward the halfling's cell.

"I don't like to brag…" The rogue replied with a smirk. "...but I do like to have a few extra tricks up my sleeve. And speaking of tricks...time to give a helping hand." With a wave of her hand, she created a small, invisible magical hand. With it, she was able to easily relieve the guard of his keys. After unlocking her own cell, she hurried over to free her magical associate, while her mage hand freed the others.

"Nice work, Luanne." The dark skinned dwarf complimented her with a pat on the shoulder. "This is definitely a step in the right direction."

"Now we just need to get our stuff, free the other prisoners and get out of here." Lanore said as she knelt by the dead guard, taking his weapon. "Here, Clyvor. It's not much, but it should help." She said, handing the short sword to him.

"I think I'll take this." The sneaky little lady said as she took the guard's blowgun and needles.

"Alright. Let's move." The brawny dwarf declared as he lead the group down the hall, in search of their equipment.

* * *

Meanwhile, well across the temple, Lolavina was sitting on the edge of the bed with her head in her hands. To some, it would seem she looked forlorn. In reality, she was getting bored and impatient. If someone didn't come soon, she didn't know what she was going to do, other than go crazy. Just as she was about to start beating her head against the wall, her door opened and in walked a tiny, bug eyed fish person in an acolyte's robe. "Good evening, your highness. I see you are enjoying your stay."

"You have a very twisted definition of enjoying…." She grumbled to herself, her arms crossed in front of her.

"The high priest is still seeking a potential new deity for our people to follow...but in the meantime, he wished for me to prepare you for the upcoming sacrifice."

"W...what? Now!?" She asked in fear.

"Yes, now. A simply sanctification and the etching of runes upon your person." The acolyte explained, which eased Lolavina's fear, if only a little. She thought they were going to cook her. "Now, if you would just come here…"

"W...wait just a moment…" The elf princess said, waving her hands in front of her, her arms outstretched. To some, it would seem she was trying to put some distance between her and the creature. In reality, it was because she preparing to enact her plan. The Kuo Toa stopped, looking right at her. "You don't want to do something like that to little ol' me…." She said meekly, giving the fish man the big sad eyes as she cast her spell. ("Yes!" Lola exclaimed after rolling the dice. "An eighteen!")

"I….don't?" The acolyte asked, his eyes turning a little pink as her enchantment started to take hold of him.

"Of course not. You're my friend." She explained to him, a smile coming to her face.

"I...I am your friend." He replied as if coming to a realization.

"And as my friend, could you please help me out of this thing? It's soooo very uncomfortable…."

"Certainly, my friend." Without a moment of hesitation, the priest in training strode over and unlocked the manacle from her midsection.

"Thank you so much." Lolavina chirped cheerfully. "You know, you work so hard around here, don't you?"

"Like you wouldn't believe, your highness...I bust my spines for the high priest…"

"You deserve a little rest. Why don't you have a little lie down?" The princess suggested, gesturing toward the bed. The Kuo Toa looked quite hesitant as he looked at the bed, wondering if he should.

"...well, perhaps a little break wouldn't hurt." He finally said as he climbed onto the bed. As soon as he laid back, the royal enchantress waved her hand again, sending a flurry of rose petals into the air. Before the acolyte could process what was going on, he was sent into a magical sleep.

"Nighty night." She said in a sing song voice before she got out of dodge.

* * *

"Nice move, Lola." Clyde told the little pageant princess with an approving nod.

"Thanks. I was hoping for a chance to really use my enchantments." She replied, looking very pleased with herself.

"Looks like this princess can rescue herself." Luan commented.

"She's not free yet." Lincoln interjected, almost sorry to be the killjoy in this case. "Just like the rest of you, she is still in a palace temple full of hostile Kuo Toas."

* * *

Lolavina ran her way through the temple interior frantically, hoping she could find some kind of friendly face. She may not be as fearful of getting into a fight as she was aboard the ship, but she was still no fighter; and if she were to run into a group of her captors, she would be back to square one. Unfortunately for her, she had no idea where she was going. Even less fortunately, a bad turn of the corner brought her face to face with a fishy soldier, decked out in scale armor and carrying a trident and net. His eyes locked onto her the moment she appeared. "...er….oops. This isn't the way to the bathroom...hehehe…" She nervously chuckled, grinning a bit. The fish faced patrolman wasn't buying it, however, stepping toward her with an angry glare. Before it could get near her, however, the Kuo Toa was suddenly pulled off its flippered feet and pulled backwards. The aquatic soldier flew right into Hops Sr's open mouth, who bit down on the fiendish fish. He shook the creature in his mouth, slamming its head against the wall a few times before swallowing it. The elven sorceress was kind of horrified at what she had just witnessed, but grateful at the same time.

* * *

"...you just earned two respect points with me, Hops." Lola told the little frog, who smiled at her.

"Really? What's it at now?" Lana asked eagerly.

"Two." The hat wearing twin frowned at her bratty counterpart, but her pet frog didn't seem bothered at all, so she let it go.

"How'd he get into the temple like that?" Leni asked, scratching her head. Hops proceeded to croak out an explanation that only two people there could understand.

"Hops told me he wanted Hops Sr to sneak into the temple via their 'stables'." Lincoln translated, getting surprised looks from everyone at the table but Lana. "What? I learned to better understand frogs hanging with Lana and helping her rescue a bunch of frogs." He elaborated with a shrug. "Anyway, after he swam in there, avoiding the sharks the Kuo Toa used as mounts, he started to look for Lanore. He thought he had her scent, but ran into you two en route."

"Lucky Lolavina." Lana commented, patting Hops on the head.

* * *

"Er….thank you, Hops Sr…" The sorceress said nervously, as the giant frog simply croaked in reply. Then, he started to hop down the hall, right past her. "Huh? Where are you going?" She asked, chasing after the monster sized amphibian.

Some distance away, in a small room barely larger than a closet, a lone fish creature was standing guard over the chest which held the condemned prisoners weapons. He looked bored as anything as he leaned against one of the walls in the small room. This kind of guard duty was tedious and dull. He had to stand in this tiny room and guard this one box, full of stuff he couldn't even touch or look at. He couldn't even stand in the hall to guard it. As he pondered his dreary duty, he heard a knock at the door. He babbled a response in undercommon. "Message for you." Came the the overly chipper response from the other side. He blinked, standing up straight as he opened the door. The moment he did, Clyvor grabbed him by the neck and threw him against the wall opposite the door. With a stab with the short sword, and a well aimed needle from Luanne, the Kuo Toa guard was slain.

"Quick and easy." The rogue commented with a satisfied tone before she moved over to the chest. "Hmmmm. Locked, of course."

"Can you unlock it?" The dragonborn ranger inquired, searching the guard for a key.

"Easy." Luanne replied confidently as she walked over to the Kuo Toa, took hold of one of his fin spines, and snapped it right off, making her friends cringe a bit. ("That's kinda dark…" Lucy commented, before smirking. "I like it…") She then moved back to the chest and started to fiddle with the padlock. In spite of being forced to use an improvised pick to work the lock, she managed to successfully unlock it. "Come on in and take your pick." She quipped, stepping aside to let her allies in to collect their gear.

"Now this is much better…" Clyvor said with a grin as he shouldered his warhammer. Lucinda pulled her spellbook close to her chest, like a child holding a precious teddy ("Awwwwwwwww!" Leni, Lola, Luan and Lana all cooed after Lucy described that).

"Now we just need to find the other prisoners…" Lanore said as she put her scimitar and scabbard onto her belt.

"The question is: where are they?" Luanne inquired as she stowed her dagger away and picked up the club the elven princess carried for emergencies.

"Maybe one of the fishy folk know." Lenina suggested, putting her mace away.

"Not a bad idea...only most of them don't speak our language…" The dwarf pointed out with a frown.

"I can get around that." Lucinda spoke up, opening her spellbook. "Last time I visited the library during our last adventure, I was able to scribe a divination spell called Comprehend Languages. It will allow me to understand them for an hour."

"Good thinking, you magical genius." The dragonborn ranger said with a grin. "Now, let's go find a few fish to f-" Before she could finish her thought, she heard a familiar leaping and flopping sound. All five heads turned to see Hops Sr hopping toward them, croaking at the sight of Lanore. "...Hops Sr!" She cried, running over to hug the oversized frog. "You're ok!" The king sized croaker smiled and nuzzled his dragonkin friend. At that moment, Lolavina came running up to them, looking out of breath.

"Lolavina! You escaped?" Luanne inquired in somewhat impressed surprise.

"Don't sound so surprised…" The elf princess said, kind of angrily.

"Don't take it like that, lass. We are relieved to see you're alright." Clyvor said, walking over to make sure of that. "How did you get away?"

"I just waited until one of them came to prepare me for sacrifice, then I simply enchanted him into letting me go." She answered with a bit of a grin.

"Nice." Lucinda said in a monotone. "But what about after? How did you not get caught?"

"...I hadn't figured that part out, and I almost did get caught...but Hops Sr ate the fishman who found me, then led me right to you all."

"Good work, buddy!" Lanore said with a grin to her animal ally.

"Well, the gang's all here, so let's get to work…" The halfling sneak said, cracking her knuckles. "Time to go fishing."

* * *

"So, did you hear? The crustacean god has been slain." An axe wielding fish guard said in a hushed voice, to his patrol partner, who carried a hook sword and shield.

"No fooling?" The other Kuo Toa inquired in surprise.

"Honest halibut. Slew by a pack of humans."

"Well, I'll be dipped and fried…"

"You don't sound so broken up about it."

"Keep a secret? I never liked the crustacean god much…" The ax carrier looked aghast at his partner. "What? He didn't just eat the sacrifices...he ate us."

"...ok, I see your point, but he provided for us. And with his help, we captured more slaves and resources than ever."

"Yeah, I get it. But I get the feeling that he was working more for himself than he was helping us, his followers."

"I see where you're coming from...but you gotta remember. He's a god. Or at least, was a god..." The first fishman said, not noticing as his friend was suddenly pulled down an alternate hall. "...and gods, well, can do pretty much whatever they like. It's how it works. It's not always ideal for us mortals, but when he blesses us with a boon, that made it all the more glorious, right…?" He stopped in his tracks when all he heard was silence. "Right?" He turned around and realized he was alone. He wondered for a moment where his partner had went, when he saw a hand beckoned to him from the intersection. "There you are…" The first guard said with a irritated look. "That was very rude of you, walking away when I'm-" Before he could finish reprimanding his associate, he was suddenly grabbed by a strong pair of hands and shoved against a wall. Clyvor had his hand around the fishman's neck, glaring at him.

"Mystic powers, grant me the ability to Comprehend Languages." Lucinda recited, a soft white glow surrounding her ears.

"Alright, buster...we got some questions for you...and you better have the answers." The dwarf said with a growl.

"The god slayers!" He exclaimed. The Kuo Toa patroller was about to scream for help, but Lucinda quickly covered his mouth.

"You know, there are fates worse than death, right?" She said threateningly. That made him shut up quickly. "That's better. Go ahead, Clyvor."

"Now then...where are the other prisoners?"

"...I wouldn't tell you...and even if I could, you wouldn't be able to understand me, stupid land dwellers…" The Kuo Toa replied derisively.

"I can….and you will…" The dark robed half elf said in a low, growling voice.

"Hey, Hops! You still hungry?" The dwarf barbarian asked, holding their aquatic prisoner like he were about to throw him out of a pub, facing the giant frog, the fish creature looking positively horrified.

"Clyvor, wait!" Lenina intervened, standing in front of him, holding her arms out. "Do we really have to do this?"

"Lenina! What are you doing!?" The elven royal brat exclaimed in disbelief. "They tried to sacrifice me, and sentence you all to death."

"I know. I know they're a bunch of mean creatures...mean, blasphemous creatures...but is it really their fault?" The gnome cleric reasoned, stepping closer to the shivering monster. "For all we know, they could be mean because they were always treated so poorly…"

"Is she serious? She isn't serious, is she?" Lanore asked, looking dumbfounded at Luanne, who looked similarly perplexed as the cleric took the Kuo Toa from the hands of Clyvor.

"There there…" The blonde haired healer said as she set down fishman against the nearest coral wall, patting him on his scaly head. "We just want to know where all the sailors we were with were taken. Could you tell us where they are being held?"

"...Yes...yes….just...keep that frog away from me….." The shaken fish man said. Lucinda gave them all a nod, confirming that he was willing to talk. "Most of them were taken to the slave pens...the others to the holding cells for future sacrifices...the slave pens are in the eastern wings, the cells in the lower catacombs…"

"Ok...we know where to go…" Lucinda said, frowning slightly. "We need to head to the catacombs to find the victims to be sacrifices and the eastern wings for the slaves."

* * *

"So, how do we go about this?" Lana asked her fellow players, the six kids and one frog getting into a huddle. "Do we split up or go to each spot together?"

"Hmmm. Splitting up means we can save all the captives at once." Luan commented, looking pensively at the map before them.

"Yes...but it also means we have fewer numbers to face potential threats…" Lucy countered.

"Very true, Lucy, but going full force to one prison may cause them to bolster their forces in the next." Clyde pointed out, casting a sideway glance toward Lincoln as he seemed to be reviewing his notes for the next encounter.

"Well, Clyde does know how Lincoln works his games better than we do." Lana whispered to her fellow players.

"And considering we mopped the floor with these things easily so far...even the bigger ones were no problem." Lola said in a hushed voice.

"Well, if we can rescue both groups of prisoners, all the better." Leni commented quietly.

"So, we split up, gang?" The family comic inquired. Her sisters and Clyde looked to one another for a moment before they nodded to her. "Alrighty then."

* * *

"OK lasses. Here's how we're gonna run this. I'll lead group A, while Lanore leads group B." The dwarven nature warrior started to say.

"Hold up...why is Lanore leader of group B?" Princess Lolavina complained, her hands on her hips.

"Well, if you would like to be taking responsibility for the team's safety, as well as the safety and well being of the prisoners, then be our guest." Clyvor said with a half smirk, his arms crossed in front of him. The elven princess looked huffy for a moment, then slumped her shoulders in defeat. "That's what I thought. ("You'll pay for that one…" Lola threatened Clyde quietly.) If it makes you feel better, you can pick which group you'd rather go with, princess." The golden haired sorceress looked between the dwarf and the dragonborn. She wasn't fond of either of them, but understood Clyvor's strength and that he could protect her quite well, so she moved over beside the barbarian.

"I will go with Lanore." Lucinda monotoned, walking over to the ranger. Hops Sr, naturally, hopped over to join his humanoid companion.

"Me too." Luanne interjected, joining group B. "I think they could use my sneaky talents a bit more."

"I"ll go with Clyvor and Lolavina then." Lenina said.

"And you'll be coming with as well, me boy." The hale and hearty dwarf said as he grabbed the kuo toa by the arm. "You're gonna lead us to the slave pens so we can be certain you don't go telling your buddies about us."

"But...anyone who sees us will know…" The fishman said, and Lucy related to them all.

"Yeah?" Clyvor smirked to him. "And if they saw you 'dragging' us in chains?" The aquatic soldier blinked, but the dwarven barbarian had started to drag him down the hall, followed by Lolavina and Lenina. Meanwhile, the other group headed in the other direction, looking for a way down to the catacombs.

* * *

Down in the lower levels of the temple palace, in the center of a massive, damp cavern, was a cauldron almost as big as the fish person stirring the contents within. This particular creature was much bigger than the others, both in size and girth. His scales were more a dull silver color, with elongated fangs, and one eye completely red and pupiless. He was wearing a turtle's shell and an apron, stirring a pot of some kind of soup full of creatures of the sea. All around him, on the walls of the cavern, were tiny spaces filled with some kind of glue like goop and a single humanoid creature in each one. Humans, gnomes, elves, a kobold or two, even a few aquatic humans known as tritons. Nearly thirty prisoners were being held in this cramped alcoves. The bloated fish had poured some of the soup into a stone bowl and approached the nearest prisoner; the captain of the ship they had just sank. A middle aged man with long, straggly black hair and a five o clock shadow.

"Dinner time…." The giant sized kuo toa told him (not that he could understand the finny fiend), holding the bowl out to him. The dark haired captain grit his teeth and smacked the bowl out of his hand, sending the food to the floor. "Now, there's no need for that…" The fishy cook said indignantly, his fists on his hips. "You gotta eat. How do you expect to grow big and juicy for our potential new god if you won't eat?" He shook his head as he plodded back to the pot. "Some people….so ungrateful to be offered to a higher being...just finning amazing…" As he grumbled to himself and started to dole out a new bowl of soup, Luanne, Lanore, Hops Sr and Lucinda peeked into the cavern. laying beside them were the corpses of two kuo toa guards; one with a deep stab wound to the back, the other riddled with slash and teeth marks. To their great fortune, they were able to eliminate these two quickly and quietly. It meant they could focus on the whale of a creature at the soup pot.

"Ok...get into position, Luanne." Lanore whispered to the sneaky brunette. She nodded and snuck her way into the room, moving as quietly as she could. A few steps in, she stepped on a brittle rib cage left laying around, causing it to shatter and clatter to the floor. The arcane trickster's breath got caught in her throat as she dove for cover. Fortunately for her, she was able to hide away just as the chef turned to look. ("Whew. Love that halfling luck." Luan commented, looking as relieved as her character) She waited for a moment for the aquatic soup server to get back to his pot before she started moving again, hiding behind one of the largest stalagmites in the room. Lucinda remained by the entrance, a freezing fog appearing in her hand, while Lanore creeped closer to the kuo toa. Hops Sr stayed by the cloaked half elf, ready to literally leap into action. The dragonborn ranger made a hand motion to her halfling associate, who drew her blowgun from her tunic. With careful aim, she launched a tiny dart right into the side of his bloated neck. The scaly chef gasped at he dropped the bowl and slapped his hand on the spot where he had been struck. The black cloaked wizard then unleashed a torrent of pure cold at the giant sized fish man. The aquatic monster wasn't damaged much by it, but the chill made him shiver subtly.

("Nice surprise round you two." Lincoln complimented them.) The monster sized fish man turned with a few stomps and roared at the only three he could see (Lanore, Lucinda and Hops Sr). The dragonborn beastmaster was the first to move, lunging at the bloated creature with her curved blade. With a being that size, she would have been hard pressed to miss, leaving a deep stab wound in its enlarged gut. From her hiding place, Luanne fired another dart from her hiding place. The thin bit of metal was a mere mosquito bite to the kuo toa chef, but the well placed strike hit a pressure point, making it hurt a LOT more than it usually would. Hops Sr sprang from the entrance to the cavern, clamping his jaw down on the arm holding the stone ladle the fish man was stirring with. The overstuffed kuo toa growled and swung his arm around, flinging the giant amphibian off of him.

"Yeah! We got this!" Lanore commented with a grin, noting how much damage they had done to this monster already. It was then the beastly cook made his own move. He dug inside his turtle shell and pulled out a small flask with a slimy, dark green liquid. He chugged down the contents, which caused him to grow to giant size. The three adventurers and one frog's mouths all hang open as he pulled a massive cleaver from said turtle shell.

("Open mouth. Insert foot." Lola whispered with a snicker.)

"...I believe mistakes have been made here…" Lucinda said as she gazed at the huge, cleaver wielding fish monster.

* * *

Meanwhile, the ax carrying humanoid fish creature was pulling along Clyvor, Lolavina and Lenina with their wrists wrapped in chains. At first glance, it seemed like a simple prisoner transfer. However, if someone really looked into it, they would see that the escorting guard looked very nervous and on edge, the chains weren't even binding them that tight, and Lolavina wasn't complaining at all. The small group passed by a few sentries along the way, but none of them thought anything of it. Looked just like a prisoner transfer. After a couple minutes of walking, the four of them arrive at the prison wing, which was filled with guards. A varitible horde of kuo toas; milling about, standing guard in front of certain cells, shooting the breeze with one another, and a few bringing captives to and from slave labor. One look around was enough to give the three pause for thought. This plan didn't seem so good anymore, especially with their own fishy captive leading them to the very center of the wing. "You better keep your mouth shut if you're wanting to stay healthy…" Clyvor whispered threateningly to the one holding their chains. Said aquatic kidnapper gulped as his eyes darted around at all of his fellows, then back at the three adventurers. It was then he stopped right at a three way intersection (all lined with cells), and screamed:

"The god killers have escaped!"

"You donkey!" The furious dwarf shouted, quickly drawing his warhammer and ending the fishy tattletale. Lolavina and Lenina dropped the chains and the act, just as the many fish folk started to arm themselves.

* * *

"...I think I'm going to have to do this in waves…" Lincoln muttered, looking at the VERY crowded map. "...I don't have enough kuo toa figures for the encounter."

"...but...there are already so many on the table…" Leni commented, looking very worried about their characters so very outnumbered.

"Lincoln, this isn't fair!" Lola complained angrily.

"Trade with ya…" Lucy said quietly.

"Yeah. We aren't exactly in any better shape." A kind of shaky Lana agreed.

"Actually, I think our two groups are right where we need to be." Clyde interjected as he looked at the two encounters, which made everyone look at him like he were nuts. "Think about it. Lucy, Luan and Lana's characters are best at damaging single targets, while Lola's has spells that can deal with multiple enemies."

"What about you and Leni?" Lola retorted, her fists on her hips.

"Clyvor can handle a group with ease, even if he can only clobber one at a time, and with Leni's character backing him and Lolavina, we should be ok." Lola and Lana don't seem to really believe him, still very intimidated by these odds.

"Well, Clyde has played this game a lot longer than we have…" The second oldest of the Loud children pointed out, just as uneasy about what they were facing, but feeling a little better upon hearing his logic. "...so if he thinks we can do it, then we can do it."

"...if my character dies, you stay away from her funeral…" Lola growled as everyone's attention returned to the game.

* * *

"Clyde, Lola, Leni, roll for initiative." Lincoln announced.

"Well, this went pear shaped in a hurry…" Lolavina complained, looking down the hall to the right, which held about seven armed fish men. "Well, here goes." The elven sorceress waved her hands as a sphere of fire appeared in her hand, the spell forming much faster than usual. "Time to fry. Quickened Scorching Ray!" Three fiery rays flew through the air, each one vaporizing a kuo toa each. ("Ok, little dicies. We can be friends again." Lola commented sweetly, patting her twenty sided die.) As her spell was quickened, she still had an opportunity to do something else with her turn, so she takes the chance to protect herself. A golden glow surrounded her as she touched her own face. "Goddess, protect me from evil with your golden shield."

* * *

"Huh? How can you do that?" Lana inquired, scratching her head. "I thought those were Lenina's kind of spells."

"Well, according to this book of Lincoln's…" Her beauty obsessed twin said, pulling one of the many source books her brother had over. "...Lolavina's di...vine soul let's her use this spell."

"...divine soul?" The animal lover raised an eyebrow in skepticism, smirking.

"What? She is simply divine, as am I." Lana opened her mouth, but Lincoln covered her mouth to prevent shots from being fired.

"Not now, Lana…at least wait until the encounters are over."

* * *

"Good idea, Lolavina." The golden haired gnome said with a smile, putting a hand on the mighty dwarf's shoulder. "Lovely Sune, protect this soul from the sting of evil."

"Cheers, lassie." Clyvor said as a golden light surrounded him. A few of the nearest kuo toa swung at the dwarf with swords and axes, with their weapons simply bouncing off of him. The elven princess' luck wasn't quite as good. She managed to avoid getting slashed by one fish man, but was struck in the shoulder by a spear.

"Agh!" She screamed, stumbling back into Lenina. Meanwhile, Clyvor decided to try something a little different. He rams his shoulder into the fish creature in front of him and, with his significant strength, knocked him backwards. Unfortunately for his mates behind him, this caused a domino effect, knocking the whole line prone. The next two attacks from the few kuo toas that could reach them were aimed at Lenina. Their blades tore right through her sundress, but couldn't penetrate the scale mail that lay beneath it.

("Clyde, I am glad you convinced her to do that." Lola told the african american boy beside her. "But I'm still upset with you") The remaining aquatic fiends couldn't easily reach the group, so they were forced to wait. With Lolavina's opportunity to strike arriving, she saw her chance to put a serious dent in their ranks. She pulled a small, red scale from her component pouch and held it high over her head. "Agaz...Aggagga...Aganana…"

("Aganazzar's." Lincoln said in an attempt to help her.)

"Aganazzar's Sc...scor...Scorcher!" Lolavina shouted, hurling the scale to the ground, which caused a line of searing fire in front of her. Six kuo toas were caught in the blaze and were reduced to ashes in seconds. The few remaining fish creatures on her side fled in absolute horror at the sight.

"Brilliant, your highness!" The tanky dwarf complimented the spellflinging princess.

"That did work nicely." She said with a grin, looking toward the fish people threatening Lenina. "And you're next!" She warned them with the most sinister smirk she could make.

"With Sune's blessing…" Leni chanted, healing Lolavina's shoulder wound while paying little mind to the kuo toas who had attacked her. Between witnessing their allies getting incinerated and the royal pain's threat, the fish fiends hastily backed away from the gnome priest.

* * *

"Are you going to take an opportunity attack?" Lincoln asked her.

"A what?" His kindly, but somewhat dim older sister inquired.

"Whenever a character in battle exits another's threatened zone, or otherwise presents an opportunity to be attacked, you can attack them if you like." He explained to her, pointing to the figurines moving away from her character.

"Oh. Well, she doesn't even have her weapon out, so I guess no."

"Wait. How did Lana not get attacked by the lobster thing earlier!?" Lola interjected.

"Because she disengaged from him as part of her move." The white haired dm explained. "It allows a player to leave a combat square without getting hit."

"Oh. Good to know."

* * *

Clyvor, on the other hand, still had one kuo toa assaulting him. However, even though he had gotten hit, the damage was a drop in the bucket for him. The fishman guard he had knocked over previous round had started to get back up, only to get slammed in the face by a steel warhammer. It wasn't slain in the attack, but it was hanging by a thread. His fellows in the domino line fearfully crawled away from him. "Not so tough now, are you, you planks!" Clyvor yelled before he swung his faithful hammer into the fish monster who had struck him, this one getting killed in a single, brutal strike. ("You see?" Clyde said to Lola and Leni. "Not that bad. There may be a lot of them, but they aren't that tough.")

* * *

Meanwhile, back in the sacrifice cells, the giant sized kuo toa in the turtle shell had taken a swing at Lanore with his giant cleaver. However, with as bad as he was shivering from Lucy's arctic attack, his aim was very off. The blade flew right over Lanore's head, causing the draconic lady to breathe a sigh of relief. Finally, it was Lucinda's turn. Seeing potential in the results of her previous casting, Lucinda invoked a new cloud of extreme cold. Once more, the attack wasn't too damaging, but left the bloated beast person shivering. The dragonborn leader of the crew disengaged from the giant creature, drawing her crossbow and launching a bolt at its over-large gut. Unfortunately, her shot simply bounced off its shell like armor. Luanne watched the situation from her hiding place, considering what to do. Her blowgun was an option, but they needed a lot of damage and quick. She didn't have any more diamonds, so she couldn't use her Chromatic Sphere spell. However, she did still have the waterskin from earlier. She poured water into her hand, creating a dagger of ice. She hurled it at the oversized guppy goon, hitting it dead on with both the blade and the explosion of ice after. Lanore's giant frog companion springs over to the kuo toa cook and clamps its teeth onto the back of his ankle. Unfortunately, it did hardly any damage to the fish creature. The furious, magic boosted kuo toa swung his knife at Hops Sr this time. Once more, he barely missed, but his sheer size caused his attack to destroy the rocky spire that the magically inclined sneak was hiding behind. Fortunately, she remained unnoticed, as the soup slinging water breather was focused on trying to take a bite out of the Lanore. However, its sheer girth and lack of flexibility in its armor made it impossible for him to bend over enough to sink his teeth into her.

* * *

Lincoln leers at Luan, who was looking a little smug. She had pointed this fact out to him and he couldn't deny she had a point, and he was pretty salty about it. Leni, Lana, Lola and Clyde were trying their best not to laugh at the look on his face. "You know…" Lucy commented, a tiny grin on her face. "...that probably would have worked for him if he hadn't made himself a giant."

"You're so right, Luce." Luan agreed with a grin, ready to further rub salt in the wound. "His 'big' surprise is bringing 'small' returns to him."

"Well...it was kind of a scary surprise, Linky." Leni interjected, hiding her silly smile with her hand as she tried to make her little brother feel better.

"...thanks, Leni…" The Loud DM replied flatly, appreciating her kind words, though they did little to soothe his irritation. "...let's move on, shall we? Lucy, it's your move."

"Very well. Lucinda casts Frostbite once more." The little goth said, holding out her hand as if she were casting the spell herself.

* * *

"Mystic powers, chill our foe to the very bone. Frostbite." Lucinda chanted, a third wave of bitter cold afflicting their obese foe. This time, however, it seems to have shrugged off the spell entirely (thanks to Lincoln finally succeeding a con save). Lanore loads a new bolt into her crossbow and hastily fires a shot at the kuo toa. This time, her aim was true, the bolt hitting him in one of his many chins. The halfling lady gets an idea at this point. Slowly sneaking her way around behind the king sized fishman, pulling a piece of pork rind from her pocket. She hurls it at her opponent.

"Hey, fat boy! Have a little more grease!" She yelled, as the pork rind turned onto a big glob of grease. The glob splattered right on the giant chef's head, causing the slick mess to cover him and dribble onto the floor. Other than making a mess and annoying the tub of lard even more, it didn't seem to do much. Hops Sr had a feeling something was going to go down, so he disengaged from the enemy and hopped out of range. The kuo toa stomped its feet as it turned toward Luanne. However, when he took his first step, he slid right onto the puddle of grease forming underneath him. Being large and not at all graceful, he ended up falling flat on his massive back. "Looks like you're the 'fall' guy here! Hahahaha!" Lanore snickered a little, while Lucinda rolled her eyes under her hood.

"Luanne, you're brilliant!" The dragonborn complimented her with a grin. With the opponent rendered helpless, the half elf wizard decided to start barraging him with magic missiles from the entryway. The draconic ranger considered for a moment using her breath attack on the overly round kuo toa, but decided to hold back on it. Instead, she sprang forward, re-drawing her scimitar and slashing into his slimy, scaly skin. Pleased with the results of her spell, the little rogue pulled out her knife, casually strolled over to the helpless ball of blubber, and stabbed him right in the leg. Hops Sr joined in the beatdown, leaping over to bite the kuo toa's arm. Fuming mad, the giant sized fish monster tried to get right back up. However, not only was he unable to get up due to his abysmal dexterity, but Lanore, Luanne and Hops Sr each were able to get an attack of opportunity on it (further getting under Lincoln's skin). In this state, it didn't take long for the group to finish the giant chef off.

"Well done, everyone." Lucinda said as she strolled into the room, with Luanne searching the now slain giant for loot.

"Yeah, but we're not done yet." Lanore commented, looking up at all the prisoners. "We still have prisoners to free." The raven haired wizard nodded, pulling a small sickle from her cloak, walking along with her dragonkin ally to start freeing the captives.

* * *

"Magic missile!" Lolavina exclaimed as she unleashed one final torrent of magical darts, downing the final fleeing kuo toa guard with ease. With the battle finally over, Clyvor took the opportunity to look around, breathing kind of heavy. The ground was littered with the corpses of fish people and ashes. The nearest prisoners were crying praises to them, while others were begging them to let them out.

"Glory to you all for a fine battle." Clyvor said as he put his hammer away. "Now let's try and find the keys and get these people out of here."

"Right." Lenina replied as she started searching through the bodies (albeit a little uneasy). Lolavina frowned, unhappy with being bossed around like that, but she did start looking. However, she refused to touch any of these hideous kuo toa or their ashes. As a result, the search took much longer than it should have, but they did eventually find a set of keys. After letting the slaves out of their holding cells, the group started to lead them back to the rendezvous point when a thought came to Lenina. "Um...Clyvor. How are we going to get all these people out of here?" She asked, gesturing toward the various humanoids behind them; enough to fill a city square. The dwarf frowned lightly as he glanced back at them, then to the gnome beside him.

"Truthfully, I haven't a clue, Lenina me lass." He whispered to her. "But I'm sure we'll think of something when we get back together with the others."

* * *

Soon enough, the two groups reunited in the room where Hops Sr had managed to enter the palace temple from; where all the fish folks mounts were. "It's grand to see you all again, and well no less." Clyvor said as he shook Lanore's hand and patted her on the back. "But now we got these folks out of here."

"Any suggestions?" Lolavina inquired.

"Well, I'm good with animals. Maybe I can convince some of these sharks and dolphins to help us?" Lanore pointed us.

"Perhaps we can be of some assistance as well." Came the voice of the tritons Lanore had freed, who had managed to pass through the large crowd of freed prisoners.

"How's that?"

"Our people can breathe underwater." The aquatic humanoids replied. "We can swim to our village and beseech their help."

"Hmmm. That would be most appreciated." Lucinda said.

"Right then. Lanore, you try to get their beasties on our side, so they don't anyone attempting to escape." Clyvor instructed, to which the ranger nodded and moved to the water's edge to work her animal handling magic. "While she has their attention, you lot should be safe to head out."

"That does make things much easier. Thank you, dry landers. We shall return as quick as we can." The tritons dive into the water and swim off like a shot. With them gone, the six adventurers decide to stand watch at the entrance to ensure they don't get bushwhacked. Thankfully, the guards never do come, so they were able to get a short rest in to recover lost hit points and magical energy. It took the tritons over an hour to swim to their village and back, during which Lanore managed to befriend the dolphins and pacify the sharks. With them and the gang of aquatic humans that returned to the temple, the group was able to send small groups of the prisoners out of the undersea holy palace of the kuo toa and up to a ship bound for Orintar. It took a few trips and nearly another hour, but they manage to get all the people they had managed to free to freedom.

"You know…" Luanne said, looking unusually pensive as she looked back toward the door. "It seems odd that, in a two hour time frame, we haven't seen any guards or heard any alarms."

"You have a good point. You would think someone would be aware of our escape." Lucinda mused, with a slight frown.

"...especially with all the fish people who...kinda got away when we were fighting…" Lolavina admitted sheepishly.

"Then this makes even less sense…" The roguish halfling said, looking even more disturbed by this news."Where are they then?"

"A good question indeed…" Clyvor replied, stroking his beard. "I dare say they would have gone to the priest...but then why haven't they been sent back after us?"

"They're probably waiting for us." Lanore reasoned, petting her amphibian associate's back.

"Then perhaps we should just go." The little cleric suggested simply.

"Lenina has a point. We saved a lot of people. We did our good deed, so let's-" Lolavina started to say.

"No." Clyvor interrupted her firmly

"We're not done here." Lucinda agreed softly. "The problem will simply continue if we leave now. They need to be stopped once and for all."

"And how exactly do you suggest we do that!?" Lolavina inquired with a sneer. "Kill them all!?" Lenina gasped in horror at that.

"No! We don't need to do that!"

"Right you are, Lenina. And we aren't, if we don't have to." Clyvor reassured her. "We just need to get one of them. The priest himself."

"...you can't be serious." The elf princess had a look of disbelief on her face.

"Actually, he's right." Luanne commented. "Take out their leader and the kuo toa will be disorganized. A power vacuum will occur. With luck, they'll clear out of here and be forced to reorganize elsewhere."

"Precisely. So, who's with us?" Clyvor asked, as Lucinda moved beside him.

"I am." Lanore said, her froggy friend croaking his agreement.

"Well...I suppose we should." Lenina said, though she didn't sound too pleased about doing even more killing, even if she wasn't directly responsible.

"Should be worth a big reward, so why not?" Luanne commented. All eyes turned to Lolavina again.

"...well, I do owe that jerk for planning to sacrifice me...ok, I'm in too…"

"Then what are we waiting for? Onward! To great victory!" Clyvor declared, striding boldly out of the room. Inspired, Lanore and Lenina ran after him, closely followed by Hops Sr. Lucinda simply smiled lightly as she followed them out. Luanne shrugged a little with a chuckle before she started after the rest of the group, with Lolavina taking up the rear, looking mighty cranky about the whole thing.

* * *

_AN: I was planning to do the whole adventure in this one chapter, but I thought it would have taken too long to do so. Next chapter will be the finale of this first adventure. But before I go, here are the basic character set ups for each character currently playing._

_Clyvor_

_Mountain Dwarf Eagle Totem Barbarian lvl 4_

_Str: 17 Dex: 10 Con: 18 Int: 13 Wis: 8 Cha: 12_

Weapon: Warhammer Armor: None

Prof Skills: Intimidate, Survival

Luanne

Lightfoot Halfling Arcane Trickster Rogue lvl 4

Str: 10 Dex: 17 Con: 12 Int: 10 Wis: 13 Cha: 16

Weapons: Dagger, Darts, Blowgun Armor: Studded Leather

Prof Skills: Stealth, Acrobatics, Deception, Insight

Favored spells: Subtle pranking spells, tricky spells, Ice Knife, Chromatic Sphere

Lanore

Copper Dragonborn Beastmaster Ranger lvl 4

Str: 16 Dex: 15 Con: 13 Int: 8 Wis: 10 Cha: 13

Weapons: Scimitar, Light Crossbow Armor: Hide Armor

Prof Skills: Survival, Animal Handling, Investigation

Favored Enemy: Aberrations

Favored Spells: Animal based spells, nature spells

Animal Companion: Giant Frog (Hops Sr)

Lucinda

Half Elf Necromancer lvl 4

Str: 9 Dex: 14 Con: 11 Int: 18 Wis: 13 Cha: 16

Weapon: Sickle Armor: None

Prof Skills: Knowledge Arcana, Insight

Favored Spells: Necrotic damage spells, subtle spells, cold damage

Lolavina

High Elf Divine Soul Sorceress lvl 4

Str: 8 Dex: 16 Con: 10 Int: 13 Wis: 13 Cha: 17

Weapon: Club Armor: None

Prof Skills: Deception, Intimidation

Favored Spells: Enchantments, Fire damage, Flashy, Loud spells

Lenina

Forest Gnome Cleric of Sune (Light Domain) lvl 4

Str: 11 Dex: 13 Con: 15 Int: 10 Wis: 16 Cha: 14

Weapon: Mace Armor: Scale Mail

Prof Skills: Knowledge Religion, Medicine

Favored Spells: Support and Healing spells


	3. City of the Kuo Toa pt 2

_AN: Took quite a long while to get through this story, but hopefully it was worth it. Before we get into the story, however, I want to go over a thing or two before I start. First, a little explanation how the story will proceed from here. The next chapter will be the start of a new campaign, and with each new campaign, the group will be mixed up a little. Someone new will be added, while someone else will sit the adventure out. I don't plan to have all nine sisters and Clyde playing all at once though; it is was tricky enough keeping track of six players, even with a turn timeline. Also, while I do think I will bring in Lincoln's friends and maybe Ronnie Anne at one point, I don't really have characters planned for anyone other than Lincoln. We'll see what happens and where the stories go though._

_At the moment, I plan to add Luna to the team next. Not sure who will not be joining them this game, but again, we'll see what happens._

* * *

City of Kuo Toa pt 2

"Soooo...do you know where we're going here, Clyde?" Luan asked as they arranged their characters into a marching line.

"Not a clue." The bespectacled boy replied, and he sounded just fine with that.

"What!? Then how are we going to find the high priest!?" Lola screeched in anger.

"We have two options at this point. We could try and go right for the big bad. It would make this campaign end more quickly, but we could end up missing out on treasure and experience. On the other hand, we could explore the entire palace temple, cleaning them out of their treasures and getting extra experience, but it will take time to do so, and Lenina may not like the fact that more and more kuo toa will probably die as a result."

"...define treasure." Lola and Luan said together, somewhat intrigued.

"Gold, gems, sometimes equipment and tools, the odd magical item…"

"We're cleaning them out!" Lola exclaimed, raising her fist into the air as if she were leading the charge.

"Me first!" Luan suddenly exclaimed excitedly, moving her character up front.

"Luan…" Lana started to say with a frown.

"Actually, having the rogue scout ahead is the best thing." Lincoln intervened. "They are least likely to alert monsters and enemies, and most likely to spot traps."

"And besides, the way we usually work it, we split all the loot at the end of the adventure anyway." Clyde explained in an effort to calm the others. "So, what do the rest of you think?"

"Well, the more loot we get, the better stuff we can get in the long run, right?" Lana asked after a moment's thought, to which Lincoln, Clyde and Lucy nodded. "So I say let's get as much as we can."

"I'm still not a big fan of the whole 'killing more of the fish guys' idea…" Leni admitted, looking kind of saddened.

"If it makes you feel better, Leni, I can put some of them to sleep instead." Lola offered, praying this would get their kindly sister on board so they could get on with this.

"...yeah. That would work."

"Alright then. Onward!" Clyde declared as all eyes returned to the map.

* * *

With little idea of where to find the high priest, the group decided to start searching each room one by one as they went. Luanne took the lead, moving quickly and quietly along the path to the left of where they had started. Clyvor was next, hammer in hand, his eyes scanning the area for any sign of trouble. Lenina, Lolavina and Lucinda were next in line, with Lanore and Hops Sr watching their backs. The first few rooms they had come across were either empty or had a few unaware kuo toa within them. Naturally, these were ignored, the group stealthily passing them by. The fourth room Luanne came across, however, contained a large iron door with three circular metal handles. Near the top was an arcing opening, within three curved images resided. First was an engraving of the fish folk themselves. The second, beings with the heads of octopi and human bodies. And finally, another kuo toa image. The door was lined with runes etched in squid ink. To the door's right, a small, simple switch. "If I were a gambling gal (and I am), I'd wager THIS is where they'd keep something important." Luanne reasoned with a grin as she stepped closer to the door nearly twice her size.

"Surein that's a safe bet. But the question is what?" Clyvor pondered as he examined the door closely.

"And how do we open it?" Lolavina asked. Lucinda stepped closer to the door to examine the runes while the party sneak inspected the door for traps.

"Looks like it's written in the language spoken by the kuo toa…" The pale half elf stated, casting the Comprehend Languages spell upon herself again. "...much better. It says: In order to cross this threshold, arrange the races of this plane as it is written they should be."

"What does that mean?" Lenina inquired, scratching her head. Before she answered, Luanne turned the right handle. This caused the bottom image to turn and be replaced by the engraved faces of a human, elf, dwarf, etc.

"By the look of it, I guess we need to change the pictures from top to bottom in a certain way." The halfling reasoned.

"I bet you're right, lassie. With the top being most important, and bottom being least, if I had to guess."

"In which case, I got this." Lolavina said with a grin as she stepped forward. Starting with the left wheel, she turned it so that the humanoids image was on top. Next, she left the squid headed picture alone. Finally, she turned the right handle the opposite direction to bring back the engraving of the kuo toa. "There we go." The elven princess commented as she reached for the lever.

"Wait!" Lucinda cried out, but too late. The sorceress pulled the handle...and nothing happened. The cloaked wizard breathed a sigh of relief, while the royal pain looked surprised and annoyed.

"What? What's going on!?"

"Lolavina, this puzzle was designed by the kuo toa. Odds are the solution was set using their own logic." Lucinda explained before turning to Luanne and Clyvor. "First should be the illithid."

"The what?" Lenina, Lolavina and Luanne all asked together.

"The ones with octopus heads." The dragonborn lady told them (once more taking advantage of her knowledge of aberrations). The halfling shrugged and did as Lucinda instructed.

"Next will probably be the beasties themselves…" The dark skinned dwarf said, turning the center wheel.

"Correct. And finally, the remaining races of the world, as they see us all as slaves." Clyvor nodded as he turned the final engraving to its proper image. Lolavina rolled her eyes a bit, but pulled the lever regardless. With a loud grinding sound, the door slowly slid open. The first thing the group noticed was the horrific smell coming from within; as if they had stumbled upon a garbage dump...and in fact, they had. Huge piles of rubbish, rot and the remains of humanoids were all over the room.

"Ugh...that is disgusting…" The snobbish sorceress complained, covering her nose and mouth. "Why would they put all this behind this door!?"

"I think THAT'S why!" Luanne exclaimed excitedly as she pointed to a cluster of chests on the other side of the room. "Probably put all this garbage in here to keep would be treasure snatchers -like us- from wanting to trespass."

"It's working…"

"I dunno, lass…" The skeptical dwarf said, glancing around the room. "Something doesn't feel right…"

"I'm sure it's fine, Clyvor." The ponytailed halfling commented as she started strolling across the room. When she got roughly halfway through, one of the refuse piles started to shake and tremor.

"Luanne! Eight o Clock!" Lanore cried, her scimitar in hand. The rogue blinked and turned just in time to get smacked across the room by a large, sludge covered tentacle.

* * *

"How's that for a sneak attack?" Lincoln said with a snarky grin.

"Ok. Ok. Fair enough." Luan replied with a chuckle, taking it on the chin. "So, how much damage do I take?" The white haired DM rolled the dice behind his screen.

"Only eight damage. Not too much." The comedianne's smile faded when she heard that and looked down at her character sheet.

"Yikes...that's almost a quarter of my hp…"

"...it is?" The one son asked, sounding quite concerned. He looked down at his hidden map, gulping a bit. Perhaps this encounter might be a bit much, he thought to himself. No turning back now, though, and the group had handled a few fairly tough encounters before...maybe they can manage it.

"So, what hit her, exactly?" Lana asked, curious.

"...after the swing of the spiky tentacle, a hideous, misshapen creature with yellow, leathery skin and comprised mostly of teeth and tentacles burst from the rubbish pile. Each tendril was covered with sharp spikes and eyes at the end. It roared as it shook off its offal home and turned its attention to the injured halfling." Lincoln described as he placed the ugly little figurine onto the map.

"Agh! I thought the fish people were hideous!" Lola nearly gagged in disgust.

"An otyugh!" Clyde exclaimed in shock.

"Bless you." Leni told the bespectacled boy.

"No. I mean that's what it's called. An otyugh. A trash dwelling carnivore." He started to explain. "A very tough monster, who can dish out a lot of damage and take a lot of damage."

"...we got this, right, Clyde?" A concerned Lana asked.

"We got this." Lucy answered in his place, looking confident...maybe? It was hard to tell with her eyes covered.

"Roll for initiative." Lincoln announced to his nervous players.

* * *

"Mystic powers, strike down my foes with invisible force. Magic missile!" Lucinda exclaimed, unleashing a barrage of magical darts into the monster's back. The darts singed its leathery hide, but otherwise it shrugged it off. Lanore sprang onto Hops Sr's back and rode into battle, her curved blade at the ready. As she approached, the monster took a swing at her with one of its three tentacles. Fortunately, she was agile enough to leap over the assault, flipping in the air as she did so.

("Show off…" Lola mumbled with a bit of an impressed smirk.) She then slashed at the otyugh's back leg, putting a slight gash into its limb. Luanne quickly got back to her feet and dove behind one of the larger chests for cover. She knew she didn't stand a chance in face to face combat with this monstrosity, so she needed to keep out of its reach.

"Scorching ray!" Lolavina exclaimed, a trio of fiery beams flying right at the tentacled monster. Two of the rays struck the beast dead on, seriously burning the otyugh, while the third missed entirely.

"Lenina, a little extra defense if you please." Clyvor requested, narrowing his eyes at the large aberration.

"Of course. Goddess of beauty, please protect this bold soul from harm." The gnomish holy woman prayed as a glowing aura surrounded the burly barbarian.

"Thanks." He said before unleashing a screeching battlecry and charging at the rubbish beast. He managed to duck under a sweeping tentacle and recklessly swung his warhammer with great force. Unfortunately, in spite of the large size of his target, he ended up hitting nothing but air. The assault upon its person was enough to draw the otyugh's attention away from Luanne and toward Lolavina instead. The elf princess recoiled in fright, but as she was out of range of the grotesque abomination, she was safe for now. Clyvor and Lanore, however, were not. The draconic ranger ducked under the tendril aimed at her, but Clyvor was hit right on, leaving some gashes across his chest. This, unfortunately, gave the mostly mouth monster a chance to take a bite at the dwarf, leaving even deeper wounds on him.

"Are you ok, Clyvor!?" The concerned gnome asked with a gasp.

"Don't be fretting, lass. I can still fight…" He replied, standing tough in spite of the many bleeding wounds on him.

"Keep him healthy, Lenina…" Lucinda instructed, unleashing a fresh wave of magic missiles into the otyugh from a distance.

"Right!" Lenina replied with a nod. As Lanore continued to do battle with the aberration, the halfling hidden behind the chest made her plan. With the monster distracted, she could take the chance to target a vital spot on it. She took out her blowgun and took careful aim at the monster's back. With one strong puff, a thin dart flew right into a pressure point in the leathery monster's back. Luanne ducked back behind the chest just as the otyugh roared in pain. "Time to feel the burn, ugly! Right, Lolavina?"

"Right, Luanne. Quickened Scorching Ray!" The sorceress exclaimed, letting loose a trio of blazing beams into the otyugh. hitting it right in the back of its mouth with all three. The creature turned quite red in the face, steam billowing from its maw as it wailed in pain. "Not a fan of heat, huh? Well, have a second helping! Scorching Ray!" Two rays struck the monstrosity, but the third impacted against the wall behind it.

"With Sune's blessing…" Lenina chanted, her hand glowing brightly as she channeled a more powerful healing spelling onto Clyvor's wounds. Unfortunately, even with greater power, it wasn't enough to heal all of his injuries. The mighty dwarf didn't seem to mind as he tried once more to clobber the otyugh. This time, the hammer hit, but unfortunately did hardly any damage. He and the dragonkin lady braced themselves for the next attack, but the monster didn't take a swing at them. It turned its back to them, reaching its tentacles toward the chest where Luanne was hiding. Before she knew what was happening, she was grabbed by two spiked tentacles.

"Agh! Help!" Luanne screamed as she was lifted up into the air, then brought toward its gaping maw. She closed her eyes as it snapped its jaw shut. Yet, instead of biting down on her head, the monster's teeth sank into one of the tentacles holding her. It was such a close bite, it nipped some hairs from her head. The otyugh screeched in pain, but didn't let her go. "Whew. That was almost a close shave. Hahaha!" ("But seriously, can someone help Luanne out there? That grab took a lot of hp from her. One good bite would be the end of her." Luan kind of pleaded.)

"Hang in there, Luanne…" The pale half elf called out, letting loose with another casting of magic missiles. Lanore took a swing at the filth beast, but unfortunately, missed completely. The elven princess gulped, having used up her most powerful spell slots already. Her only option left was to unleash her own barrage of magical projectiles at the otyugh. It was still moving even after all that. Lenina was feeling very nervous at this point. The halfling was close to death, and she couldn't heal her. If something wasn't done soon, she would be killed. The gnomish cleric took hold of her holy symbol, shaking a bit as she hastily and mentally went over her options. She could only see one viable option, and she didn't like it. However, for her friend, she needed to do it.

"Sune...please forgive me…" Lenina muttered under her breath before she held her holy symbol out in front of her. "Goddess of Beauty and Love, I request your aid. Grant me your strength before a terrible price is paid…" She started to pray out loud, getting the attention of everyone in the room, the monstrosity included.

"What is she doing?" Lanore inquired

"I have no idea…" Lolavina answered with a shrug.

"Lovely Sune, shine your glorious light. Bring an end to this horrible fight. Help us defeat this hideous creature so wrong. Grant me the power of….RADIANCE OF THE DAWN!" She cried out, a beam of blinding light equivalent to concentrated sunlight bursting from the golden symbol of her goddess at the trash dwelling beast.

* * *

"Time to roll for damage, Leni...good luck." Lincoln said as Leni nervously picked up two ten sided dice. The somewhat air headed teen rolled the dice across the table, closing her eyes.

"Whoa! Nice roll, sis." Luan commented happily.

"Very nice indeed." Lucy added, which encouraged Leni to open her eyes and see what she had rolled.

"A nineteen." Her DM brother told her. "Add your four cleric levels and that's a total of twenty three damage." He then rolled a D20 behind his DM screen, which made the kindly blonde more nervous.

"Is...that enough? Does it hurt it?"

"It doesn't hurt it, Leni…" The second oldest of the Loud sisters slumped a bit, looking positively heartbroken. "...it incinerated it!"

"Way to go, Leni." Clyde complimented her, patting her on the back as she perked right up.

"As the ray of magical sunlight shone from Lenina's holy insignia, the ray bored right through the otyugh, leaving a gaping, smoking hole through its back and out its front." Lincoln described, knocking the otyugh onto its side. "The monster collapses to the ground, dropping Luanne in the process."

"Good work, Leni!" Lola praised her older sister, though the second oldest started to look kind of sad.

"We may be safe now, but Lenina isn't quite happy about it…"

* * *

Clyvor and Lanore ran forward as the trash monster dropped the wounded halfling, checking to make sure she was ok. Lenina was just standing there, staring at the otyugh's corpse, shaking a little. The cloaked half elf slowly strode over beside her, turning her head to look at her. "Is something the matter, Lenina?" She asked quietly.

"...I killed a living creature…" The gnomish cleric said in a choked up voice.

"Mmm Hmmm?" The raven haired wizard tilted her head at her, uncertain why she was so bothered by this.

"Sune disapproves of violence...she'll no doubt be so disappointed in me for taking the life of another creature…if she doesn't cast me from her church..."

"I doubt it." Lucinda commented flatly, the gnome looking at her with an angry scowl. "Think about it, Lenina. If Sune really had a problem with your actions, don't you think she would have acted by now?" Lenina took a moment to consider her words.

"I...guess so…"

"And what's more, you did it to save Luanne from death. I'm sure the goddess of love would understand needing to use force to save a friend from certain death. She values friendship, does she not?"

"Of course…"

"Then don't get so bent out of shape about it." The half elf gently patted her on the shoulder. The little healer gave a half hearted smile, but she couldn't just cast off her worries. She decided she would go speak to her goddess when they returned to Orintar, but for right now, her friends needed her. She stepped forward and used what was left of her magic to heal the group, especially Luanne, who was working on opening the chest she had been hiding behind earlier. The halfling grinned as she unlocked the box and slowly opened it up. To her delight, it was filled with gold coins, fine cut gemstones, a fine silver ring with a little ruby embedded into it, and a pair of studded leather gauntlets.

"Dibs on the ring!" Lolavina called out from the entrance to the room, unable to bear standing among the foul smelling rubbish, and the even fouler smelling monster.

"Hold up, your highness." Lucinda intervened. "I can sense magic from that ring. It could be enchanted, but it could be cursed…"

"Oh, what could possibly go wrong?"

"You could be weakened, have your magic fizzled every time you cast it…" She started to explain, turning toward the elf princess. "...make you want to leap right into that trash heap and roll around in it…" That made Lolavina scream softly before she covered her own mouth. "Wait until we return to town, so we can identify it first."

"...ok." The bratty princess muttered. Luanne continued to unlock the remaining two boxes, finding even more gold and gems, a few crafted gold and silver items, and an odd metal pole with two metal plates at either end. Clyvor packed up the gold and items into his pack (as he was the strongest), while Luanne helped herself to a few diamonds, and the crew hastily left the trash room. After taking a short rest, they returned to their exploration of the temple palace. The next several rooms were nothing of note: a few empty, a few with non combative kuo toas that Lolavina put to sleep before they moved on, and a few barracks that Luanne was more than happy to clean out of gold and a few smaller weapons. The next room they had come across had massive double doors made of coral and whale bone, with etchings of the kuo toa people on their side. To the six adventurers and one giant frog, this seemed like the most likely place to find their big bad. The crew looked to one another for a moment before Clyvor gestured their stealthy halfling associate to have a quick look.

She sneaked her way over to the massive doors, only to find them ajar. A quick peek inside revealed a very grim sight. The floor was littered with the bodies of kuo toa soldiers and guards. She wasn't able to see much else, but what little she could see, the room was quite cavernous, and she could see a candle atop a bone candle holder. She stumbled her way back to the group and whispered "I found the rest of the guards…"

"Are they waiting for us?" Lanore asked, getting ready for a big fight.

"...they're dead."

"Wait...really?" Lolavina inquired, sounding kinda worried (more about what they were going to find in there than for the slain fish folk).

"I don't like the sound of that...brace yourselves, lasses." Clyvor whispered, his hands clenched his mighty warhammer tightly. He moved quietly beside the door, holding three fingers up for his friends to indicate when they were going in. He lowered one finger, then two, then barged into the room. The room was about the size of half a football field, with four coral pillars in random intervals. There was a few piles of kuo toa corpses dotted around the room, with the high priest standing before a stone throne at the opposite end of the chamber. He was waving his hands in the air and chanting in a language that no one, apart from Lucinda, could understand, but it sent a chill up their spines.

"So...the god killers have finally come...well, you are too late." The fish faced priest declared. "The ritual is complete."

("...maybe we shouldn't have lollygagged, looking for treasure." Luan commented with a sheepish shrug.)

"Ritual?" Clyvor asked, glancing over his shoulder at Lucinda.

"I cannot say for certain, but I suspect he is attempting to conjure a new god…" The pale wizard replied with a frown.

"A good guess, half breed. And now….prepare to face the fury of our new god! May THEY have no mercy on YOUR souls!" He bellowed as his hands glowed a dark gray. His words were making Lenina's blood boil, but she managed to keep herself under control as a runed circle appeared before him...then another. And another. The kuo toa priest looked a little confused by this.

"Is...that supposed to be happening?" Lanore asked, drawing her crossbow.

"I sincerely doubt it…" Lucinda commented, pulling out her sickle. The circles started to glow before erupting in a flash of light. When their vision returned, a trio of blob like abominations covered in eyes and mouths of sharp teeth were laying right where the circles used to be. There was a maddening noise coming from all of them: a cacophony of whispers, screams, grunts, growls and shrieks.

* * *

"What is with all these really ugly monsters!?" Lola asked, looking utterly disgusted.

"Sorry, Lola, but this wasn't exactly planned." Her brother admitted. "The priest botched the ritual."

"Is that what you were rolling just a moment ago?" Lana wanted to know, looking more interested in the mouth laden oozes than her sister. The white haired game master nodded.

"Besides, do you think you could do battle with something like a unicorn, or a faerie dragon?" Lucy pointed out, looking at her younger, more brightly colored sister. Lola took a moment to consider the question.

"...point taken. At least I won't feel guilty burning these things."

"Roll initiative...oh, and when your respective turns come up, you'll need to roll a wisdom save." Lincoln informed them all.

"Wisdom saves? Why?" The pageant princess asked with a raised eyebrow.

"These creatures are Gibbering Mouthers, and their gibbering has a chance to cause madness among each of you." He explained, checking the information in his monster manual.

"...do we need to roll three times each?" The second oldest of the Loud sisters asked with concern.

"No." He answered, shaking his head. "However, you will have to roll at a disadvantage, since there are three of them gibbering all at once."

"Fair enough." Clyde said as he started to shake up his d20.

* * *

Clyvor's muscles tensed as he readied himself to charge the hideous globs of teeth. However, before he could, he froze up, his look of determination replaced with a blank look. "Clyvor? What are you doing?" Luanne inquired, waving a hand in front of his face. "Earth to Clyvor!" ("Wait...are we even on Earth anymore?")

"Their insane yammering must be affecting him…" Lucinda deduced, leering at the mouthers. The first of the amoeba monsters started to slowly ooze it's way closer to the nearest pile of bodies, seemingly paying the party no attention.

"What's it doing?" Lolavina inquired, looking about one step away from being sick.

"I dunno…" Lanore commented. "But I'd be willing to bet we don't want them to get to those fish people…"

"Agreed." Luanne said, pulling out one of the diamonds she had collected earlier. It ignited into flames as she hurled it toward the nearest Gibbering Mouther. "Fire in the hole!" She cried out as the fiery orb landed right into one its mouths before it exploded. The spell wasn't enough to destroy it, but it certainly couldn't be feeling very good after that.

"Let's go, Hops Sr!" Lanore yelled as she sprang onto her froggy friend's back. The two of them charged across the battle, stopping in front of the slow moving monster headed for the kuo toa bodies. With two of the aberrations in line of sight, the dragonborn ranger took the opportunity to unleash her acid breath on them. Her aim was true, the two blob like monsters getting covered with searing acid, dealing some significant damage.

"This is going to be easy!" Lolavina said with a smug smirk as she launched a torrent of fiery beams at the closest abomination. Unfortunately, she missed it with all three rays. That said, she was able to hit the other two with her errant magic, so it wasn't all bad. It was then the high priest snapped out of his stunned surprise. While these creatures weren't what he expected, he did summon them with his god calling spell. Therefore, they were the new gods of the kuo toa, and he would be damned if he would let these god killers slay them too. He raised his conch staff, sending a glistening cloud onto the trio of jabbering monsters. The cloud seemed to be healing their burns with ease, restoring the left and right mouthers to nearly perfect health, and putting the center monster in better health.

* * *

"What!? That's not fair!" Lola screamed in anger, her face red as she leered at her older brother.

"How so?" He asked calmly. "You guys have a cleric, so do they."

"But she can't heal all of us at once!" The prissy twin objected.

"Yet." Lincoln replied.

"Calm down, Lola." Clyde tried to ease the raging six year old. "We've come this far. We can do this." The beauty obsessed Loud grumbled in anger, but seemed to settle down enough to get back to the game.

* * *

The front glob creature started to ooze it's way forward, headed right for the dazed Clyvor. Fortunately, it was incredibly slow and had a long way to go. "I hope someone has a plan…" Lenina said in deep concern as she cast a shield of faith upon Clyvor.

"I do." Lucinda pulled out her spellbook, flipping through its pages. "Autora Obscuris!" She chanted, a dark aura surrounding Clyvor's ears. Just then, the dark skinned dwarf snapped out of whatever trance he had been in.

"Wha...where am I?" He asked, though he couldn't hear his own words. "By Moradin...I can't hear!" The half elf stepped in front of him, making motions with her hands to explain. She had cast a spell of deafness on him, so he couldn't hear the Gibbering Mouthers. If he couldn't hear them, he could fight. "Oh...not a bad idea there, lassie. Might hinder my ability to coordinate with our group though…" Lucinda mimed for him not to worry about it, then pointed toward the mass of teeth and eyes headed for him. The barbarian nodded to her, putting his focus on the abomination. The third mouth slowly slid its way over to the closest corpse to it, about five feet away. The mouth laden monstrosity hastily consumed the fish guard and, upon finishing it's meal, it started to grow. Not by a lot, but it was noticeable.

* * *

"What the heck!?" Lola asked, her temper growing even more.

"This is a boss fight, Lola." Clyde explained calmly, knowing that most (if not all) of Lincoln's sisters were unfamiliar with how boss fights in most games worked. "Usually, these kind of fights have different mechanics to make them more difficult and encourage clever play and strategies to complete them."

"And it looks like we were right. We DON'T want them eating those fish guys." Lana said as she looked over the board with a smile. She wasn't as upset as her twin, since she liked the gross turn this was kind of taking...even if it meant this was going to be rough for her character.

"Indeed. So we need to concern ourselves with the gibbering, the high priest's interference, and keeping the Mouthers from eating the sacrifice victims…" Lucy commented.

"Right. So we'll need to wipe out the mouthers quickly, before they can be healed again, or disable the high priest so we can deal with these monsters." The bespectacled boy said, rubbing his chin as he thought. "Lola, your character still has a sleep spell, right?" The pageant princess nodded, still looking heated and salty about all this. "Why not put their healer out of commission with that?"

"...ok. I could do that."

"Maybe we'll get lucky and the mouthers will see him as an easy meal." Luan commented with a slight snicker. Lincoln couldn't help but smirk a little when he heard that, but not for the reason Luan would like. No one really noticed as they were busy making their plan.

* * *

Unable to hear the monstrous messes, the mighty dwarf charged toward the single minded ameboid creature before him. With a swing of his mighty warhammer, he bludgeoned the mouther right in one of its many maws, knocking out some teeth. The first of the blob monsters was now focused on the dragonborn mounted on the giant frog blocking its path to a fishy feast, slopping toward her slowly. Fortunately, it was so slow, it couldn't reach her. Luanne was about to reach for another diamond, but she froze in place, the constant jabbering affecting her now. However, unlike Clyvor, the little rogue did something. She pulled out her knife and started to walk toward Lenina, holding the blade like a slasher movie villain. The blonde haired gnome was so focused on her friends that she never saw the dagger coming, the dagger sinking into her back. Fortunately, the armor hidden under her dress managed to protect her vitals, but blade did leave a very deep gash in her back. Lenina screamed and jumped away from her maddened friend, looking horrified. "Luanne!? Why did you do that!?"

"She's been driven mad by the gibbering…" The dark haired wizard explained sadly, unable to do much about it at the moment.

("Sorry, Leni…" Luan apologized with a sad expression.) Now it was Lanore's turn. She decided to go with what worked before. She directed Hops Sr forward, the two of them striking at the first many mouthed monster. After tearing off bits of the ooze beast with blade and teeth, Lanore disengaged from the Mouther and moved another ten feet away. Just out of its reach.

("Thatta girl, Lana. Kite it until it falls." Clyde cheered. Lana wasn't really sure what he meant, but felt proud of it anyway.) The elven princess reached into her components pouch and hurled a flurry of rose petals into the air.

"Nighty nighty, fish freak!" She yelled as she unleashed a quickened sleep spell at the kuo toa high priest. At first, it didn't appear the spell had any effect, but after a few seconds, the fish creature seemed to be drifting off before dropping his staff and flopping to the floor, snoozing quietly. Feeling pleased, Lolavina then turned to the larger of the three mouthers. She unleashed a torrent of magic missiles into the massive mass, dealing a little extra damage. The kuo toa priest was still asleep, so he couldn't act, thus the blob creature engaging Clyvor attacked next. It tried to gnash at him with its razor sharp teeth, but Lenina's holy shield protected him. Unable to bite him, the creature then spat out a slimy blob of spittle right at him. Upon striking his arm, the spit burst into a bright flash of light. While the sudden flash did hurt his eyes, it fortunately wasn't enough to blind him.

"Sune...may your love heal me…" Lenina chanted as she cured most of the injury she sustained from Luanne's sudden backstab. Unfortunately for her, there really wasn't much else she could do in her position. The dark cloaked half elf, on the other hand was; casting another deafness spell upon Luanne, snapping her out of her own madness.

"Whoa...what happened…?" She asked, a little disoriented after her recovery. Lucinda stepped in front of her and explained, through hand gestures, what had just occurred. "...really? Thanks, Luc...that's a load off my mind…" While they were getting that sorted out, the largest of the toothy mounds had suddenly turned its attention upon the sleeping priest. It slowly slithered its way closer to its new prey, its larger size meaning it didn't have to travel quite as far. With its many very sharp teeth, it tore into the kuo toa, dealing serious damage, but not killing him. The incredible pain, however, was enough to wake him up.

"AAAAHHHH! What are you doing!? I am your faithful high priest! Why are you punishing me!?"

"Something tells me these things don't know friend nor foe…" Lanore commented as she and her amphibious ally leered down the aberration before them. "...just food."

"I'd say you hit the nail on the head…" Lucinda agreed, watching as Clyvor took a reckless swing at the mouther, intent on doing as much damage as possible. His hammer hit home easily, but his strike was more a glancing blow, unfortunately. Even less fortunately, Lucinda's spell of deafness had worn off as well. Lanore's target continued to mindless chase after her, accomplishing little. With her senses back where they belong, the stealthy little lady pulled a small diamond from her pocket as she carefully maneuvered behind a pillar. She couldn't quite reach the one gorging on the kuo toa high priest, but she could target the one currently chasing her draconic friend. The gem started to vibrate just before she hurled it at the enemy. When the diamond hit the amoeba monster, a thunderous boom erupted from gemstone, causing everyone who could hear it to flinch.

"Yikes...I could feel that. Makes me glad I can't hear right now." The dragonborn ranger was next to fall prey to the mouthers' constant yammering, freezing up like a statue. Hops Sr, however, was still quite sane and had the sense to get himself and his friend away from this fleshy blob of teeth and eyes. "Hey, your highness! Think you can fry the one I just hit with the chromatic orb?" The halfling woman called out.

"I can try…" Lolavina groaned, rubbing her ears. "...but don't ever throw a thunder orb indoors again!" The sorceress pointed toward the otherworld monstrous mess currently menacing her dragonkin associate, unleashing a barrage of magic missiles upon it. The impact of the three magical projectiles was enough to finish it off, causing the mouther to melt away into nothing with a loud screeching sound. The high priest made a grab for his conch staff, but unfortunately for him, not only could he not reach, but it gave the large ooze creature a chance to take another bite out of him. This attack proved fatal and, in a gruesome display that Lincoln couldn't describe in front of his younger sisters, consumed the humanoid fish. And with its latest snack, it grew even larger.

"How much larger is that thing going to get!?" Clyvor asked as the mouther was now positively huge.

"Hopefully, not much larger at all…" The half elf wizard commented, looking up at the creature.

"It won't...because we're gonna get rid of that horrible thing before it can!" Lolavina cried out, though she wasn't sure just how they were. Especially since they still had another mouther trying to put the bite on the hammer wielding dwarf. This time, the creature was able to sink its teeth into Clyvor, leaving deep wounds in his arms and shoulders, with one mouth even biting his ear. However, he still stood strong, and boy was he angry. Fortunately, the cleric of Sune was right there to magically cure...most of his injuries.

"Hmmmm...a creature with that many eyes...I wonder…" The raven haired spellslinger smirked a bit as an idea came to her. She prayed for a moment that this creature didn't have some method of sensing without sight as she cast her spell. Auras of darkness covered each and every eye on the giant sized mound of fleshy ooze, effectively blinding it. In its rage, it lashed out at literally nothing, since it couldn't see there was nothing there.

"Nice move, lass. Now, to be rid of this mess here…" Clyvor's face turned red as he tapped into his inner rage. With a screeching roar, he swung his warhammer down with all his strength. The Gibbering Mouther before him exploded like a plate of jello under his iron weapon, melting away like its fellow monster. All that remained was one...but it was the biggest of them all. "Get it before it eats again!" Although Luanne couldn't hear him, she could plainly see what needed to be done. She poured some water into her hand, turning it into a dagger of ice. With a calculated throw, it struck the mess of muck and mouths and exploded into ice shards. With Lanore's next turn, she succeeded in throwing off the madness of the mouthers. She steered Hops Sr away from the giant mounds' snapping jaws and pulled out her crossbow. She took careful aim and fired a bolt, the projectile sinking right into the abomination. Lolavina raised her hand in preparation to cast a spell, but she ended up with a glassy look in her eyes.

"Lolavina, what are you wait-" Clyvor asked, looking back to see the princess looking just like he, Lanore and Luanne had. "Oh bloody…not again…" He groaned as the enchantress started to simply meander across the room. Unfortunately, she was passing very close to the mouther. The moment she passed its (now vastly extended) threatened zone, it lunged at her, following the sound of her footsteps.

"Lolavina! Look out!" Lenina screamed out, but it was too late.

* * *

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHH!" Lola screamed after Lincoln rolled for the damage dealt, faux fainting off her stool and onto the garage floor, playing dead.

"Lola? Lola!" Leni and Clyde both lept from their seats to run over beside the bratty twin. The others, however, didn't even react. They were all aware of Lola's over-dramatic ways (Leni was too, but she had forgotten in the heat of the moment).

"Relax you two. She's fine." Luan said, rising from her seat for a quick look.

"How do you know that for sure!? Maybe the death of her character really brought about her own death!?" A panicking Leni nearly screamed.

"That's impossible, Leni…" Lincoln explained. "...and I can give you three reasons why. First, Clyde and I have both lost several characters since we started playing, and we aren't dead, are we?"

"...not unless you're, like, a really solid ghost…"

"We aren't." He cut her off before she could continue her thought. "And second, observe." The white haired boy look to Hops. "Hey, Hops. You know CPR, right?" Hearing that made Lola's eyes spring open and caused her to sit bolt upright.

"You wouldn't dare!" She yelled in a threatening manner, Lana and Luan laughing their heads off.

"There you go. And third, her character isn't dead." He elaborated, calm as you please.

"What!?" The pageant princess quickly jumped back into her seat. "But...that attack took all of her hit points…"

"Yes. But it knocked her to exactly zero. When a character is knocked to zero, they aren't dead, just unconscious."

"Oh…so there's hope…?" She asked in almost a pleaded manner, her eyes getting really big. Lincoln nodded in reply as Leni and Clyde retook their seats.

"Just need a good heal to bring your health above zero."

"Don't worry, Lola. Lenina's on the way." Her dim, but sweet older sister said.

* * *

The moment the elven princess fell to the ground, her gown soaked in blood from her bite wounds, the group gasped in horror. Without a moment's hesitation, Lenina dashed over to the fallen sorceress, with her back to the mouther. For some reason, the aberration didn't snap at her. "Lovely Sune, please shine your light upon this poor soul…" She prayed as holy light shone from her hands onto Lolavina. The bite gashes on the princess magically mended themselves, her eyes opening after a moment. "Don't worry, your highness...I got you." She told her softly.

"B...bu who's got you?" She asked, looking terrified at the giant sized Gibbering Mouther behind the gnome. Before the monster could attack, a blast of arctic energy blasted its pudding like body. It was shaking like jello, Lucinda smirking a bit as a chilly aura surrounded her hand. The monster, regardless of its blindness and shivering, proceeded to try and bite Lenina, who stood between it and the shaking princess, refusing to budge. The mouther's jaws snapped shut so close to Lenina's nose, she could see herself in its somehow shiny teeth. This was more than Clyvor needed to see as he charged in like a rhino, ducking under razor sharp teeth, and took a reckless swing at the giant monster of many mouths. With a creature that size, it was near impossible for Clyvor to miss, his hammer bruising the creature's gelatinous badly with the impact. Out of magical tricks, it was time for Luanne to get up close and personal. Dagger in hand, she crept around to the side of the monster. Unfortunately for her, not only did the beast have eyes everywhere, but she couldn't even find any vital spots to attack. This didn't deter her though, as she plunged her little knife right into the blobby creature, dealing a small amount of damage. Lanore's attack was equally feeble by comparison, the dragonborn planting another crossbow bolt into the mouther.

"Get away while I have it's attention, Lolavina." Clyvor instructed. The wounded elf didn't need telling twice; she very quickly put as much distance between her and the hideous mass of eyes and teeth as she could. Once at a safer distance, she made her next move: unleashing her last volley of scorching rays. Thanks to the sheer size of the ooze like predator, all three rays struck and seared its fleshy exterior.

"May Sune's light and love soothe your pain…" Lenina prayed, waves of healing magic emitting from her hands into the raging dwarf pummeling the Gibbering Mouther. Seeing how well her strategy was working so far, Lucinda hurled another Frostbite spell at the blinded monstrosity. Once more, her spell connected and sent shivers down the creatures non-existent spine. With both factors in place, the monster's next attack missed Clyvor entirely, slamming its blubbery mass against the floor. Unfortunately, the blinding spell had worn off at that point, giving the creature its sight back.

("Ok, guys. Going for maximum damage…" Clyde announced. "...wish me luck.") The dark skinned dwarf was practically snorting steam from his nose in his anger. The fact that this hideous monster had not only nearly killed his allies, but had the audacity to still be alive was an insult to him in his enraged state. He gripped his warhammer with two hands and bellowed loudly as he swung with all his might. His aim was true, sending ripples through the fleshy, ooze like form from the point of impact, and dealing some serious damage to it. Unfortunately, the giant mass was still, figuratively, kicking. Luanne raised her weapon to strike again, but unfortunately for her, the deafness spell had worn off the turn before last. As a result, the insane gibbering had once more taken hold of her, causing her to freeze in place. Lanore fared no better; in fact, she had attempted to wander off into the corner of the room mid battle. Fortunately, she was still on her amphibious ally, who kept her from going on her forced stroll.

('Ok…' Lola thought to herself, starting to sweat a little at the situation before them. 'I only have one more casting of Scorching Ray left. I can do some serious damage if I just roll right...please, dice...be good little dice and work with me…' She mentally pleaded as she reached for three d20) "Scorching Ray!" The royal sorceress chanted, three beams of pure fire launching from her finger at the huge mouther. The spell seemed to soar through the air in slow motion, almost all eyes on the flying rays. The first ray struck the abomination dead on, nearly burning a hole clear through it. The next was more a glancing hit, dealing only a little damage. And finally, the third beam. That third ray hit home (and Lola was lucky enough to roll max damage)! With one last screech, the mouther glowed the color of the magical beam before being reduced to ashes. There was a moment of silence among the group before Lenina started cheering, followed by Luanne and Lanore (after they had snapped out of their momentary insanity) and finally Clyvor. Lolavina was in a bit of a state of shock that she managed to finish that monstrosity off, and Lucinda wasn't really the cheering type. She did, however, walk over to the princess and gave her a soft pat on the back for a job well done. (Which was also what Lucy gave a proud looking Lola as her fellow players were congratulating her).

"And that, as they are fond of saying, is that." The pale half elf commented with a small smile. While the others were busy celebrating (and looking for loot), Hops Sr heard something nearby. He turned his head, seeing a slightly hunched over shadow zip just past a pillar. He croaked loudly, getting Lanore's attention.

"Huh? What's up, buddy?" She asked, to which the giant frog nudged his head toward the place where he had seen the shadow. The dragonkin ranger ran over for a look, just in time to see some shadowy smoke dissipating in the air, a cackling laugh just barely audible.

"What do you think, lass?" Clyvor asked Lucinda as he picked up the conch staff, which had been snapped in half when the giant mouther grew.

"Hmmm. We could probably get it repaired, though its magic is long gone at this point." She said after a brief inspection of the staff.

"Well, it would still make a nice trophy of the battle." The dwarf said with a chuckle, putting the two halves of the staff into his pack. Lucinda nodded in agreement,

"Mmmmm. Lots of great treasure here…" Luanne commented quietly as she dug through one of the many chest hidden behind the alter/throne (which weren't there initially, but Lincoln had put them there when the kuo toa priest got eaten so they could still get their loot). Lots and lots of gold, gems, crafted items, a wand, a couple potions, a fine leather quiver, and a polished bronze ring.

"Now we just need to get out of here…" Lolavina said after she regained her composure, helping Luanne and Clyvor put all the treasure they could into his pack, followed by Lanore's pack.

"Very true...the question is how…" The mighty dwarf stroked his beard as he pondered this.

"Lanore, do you think you can enlist the aid of the kuo toa's dolphins and sharks to assist in our escape?" Lucinda inquired, turning her attention to the concerned dragonborn.

"Huh? Oh, sure. No problem." She replied.

"Is something wrong?"

"Kinda...something else was in this room." The ranger explained, pointing to where she saw the dark smoke. "Hops Sr saw it, but it got away before I could…" This news brought a frown to the wizard's face as she hurried over for a closer look at the spot where Lanore had seen the mist. Using a detect magic spell, she could tell magic had been used there. However, there was very little else she could tell. She decided she would tell her friends about it later; getting away from the kuo toa was their top priority at the moment. The party lugged their loot back to where the aquatic stable was located and, after a few minutes of letting Lanore do her thing, the group each mounted a dolphin (with the dragonborn ranger riding Hops Sr) and they swam off, with a small group of sharks acting as bodyguards. The moment they emerged from the palace/temple, they found utter chaos. The tritons, after helping the prisoners escape, had mobilized for war and were driving the kuo toas out of the area. The fish folk were fleeing in terror, as most of their soldiers had been defeated or sacrificed in the temple, and they didn't have the high priest to guide them. A part of Clyvor wanted to join in the battle, but he knew that they couldn't hold their breath for that long, so they kept going. The dolphins quickly brought them to the surface, where a small fleet of ships were waiting. When the fish peoples' captives were brought back to Orintar, they had told the port authority about them, and they sent some sailors to help fight the kuo toa. Upon seeing the heroes surfacing in the water, they sent a longboat out to pick them up.

Once the group was all aboard the main galleon, Clyvor went on to tell the sailors about the adventure they had just had, albeit the abridged version. After all, they were all soaking wet, tired and were in great need of a good rest. For some reason, as the group helped the dwarf tell the story, Lolavina seemed to hang back and keep quiet. The captain was most impressed with their heroism and told them they were sure the mayor of the city would want to reward them for their good work. It would be a few days before they could get back, however, so the captain instructed one of the deckhands to lead the party to some rooms where they could rest. Later that night, as Clyvor slept in the quarters he shared with Lucinda, the half elf was wide awake, pulling a journal her own backpack. She glanced about for a moment before she pulled a quill from her cloak.

"While my study of the truth and secrets of death have seen little progress these last few days…" She muttered as she wrote. "...I did come across a few intriguing questions worthy of study. What happens to the souls of creatures created by unnatural means? Aberrations, such as the chattering abominations summoned by the kuo toa high priest. Are their souls real or artificial? If they are artificial, do they move on to the afterlife after? So many questions to add to the never ending list. A list I hope to one day soon to shorten. I won't be arrogant enough to think I can find answers to all the questions of death, but if I can even find a few solutions to a few mysteries, I would be happy." She was about to stop there, but paused a moment, then started to write some more. "One point of great concern I noticed during the battle against the high priest and his summoned minions. When one of those things ate him...I couldn't sense his soul leave his body. This had never happened before. It was like it consumed his immortal being along with his mortal form...which would explain how it grew even more powerful after. The question is why? Could it possibly be linked to what Hops Sr and Lanore saw? Could there be a third party responsible for what happened with the priest's summoning? So many more questions…" She sighed as she finished her documentation of her thoughts and research with her signature, putting her pen and writing book away.

The next day, with their strength back to full and all of them well rest, the adventurers all got together in Clyvor and Lucinda's room. It was time to divide up the loot they had gathered throughout the adventure. First, the gold, gems and other valuables. Between Luanne and the dwarven barbarian, it took them no time at all to appraise the value of each item, then split the total among the six adventurers, equating to nearly a thousand gold each. Then came the items they had found. The pale wizard was able to magically identify each item and, after ensuring they were safe, began the process she and her dwarven friend always used to determine who picked their magical prizes first: drawing straws. To her delight, Lolavina got the long straw, while Lucinda had drawn the short one. "I know exactly which one I want!" The elven princess squealed as she grabbed the ruby ring.

"Are you sure you-?" The dark cloaked half elf tried to ask, but it was too late. She simply shrugged and told her. "As you wish. You are now in possession of a ring of the silver tongue."

"...that doesn't mean my tongue will turn silver, will it?" Lolavina asked with a hint of concern.

"No. It means that you will be able to more easily negotiate, intimidate and manipulate others through words." Lucinda elaborated.

"Oh! Well, that's just perfect." The golden haired sorceress said as she put on the ring with a smile. Luanne was next, taking hold of the wand she had found in the throne room.

"I'll help myself to this Wand of Fog Cloud." She stated, twirling it in her fingers. "No harm in having a few extra tricks up my sleeve." The gnomish cleric looked over the remaining four items, thinking carefully.

"Hmmmmm...I think I'll take this." She said, picking up the odd metal rod with the metal planks on either end.

"Are you sure, Lenina?" Lucinda inquired, to which the blonde haired healer nodded. "Very well. The portable ladder is now yours. Simply tell it to extend, and it will extend as high as you need it. Say retract, and it will shrink back to its original state."

"Is that what it is? Neat!" Lenina said cheerfully.

"What are you going to do with a portable ladder?" Lanore asked with a raised eyebrow (or reasonable equivalent on a dragonborn).

"I dunno, but I'm sure I'll find something."

"Anyway, I guess I'll take this quiver." The draconic ranger commented, as she took the fine leather arrow holder.

"A fine choice. The quiver of replenishing will keep you provided with twenty extra bolts a day." The studier of the morbid explained to her.

"Really? Sweet. That'll save me a little money on buying more ammo."

"I think I'll be taking these gloves." Clyvor said, trying the gloves on for size.

"I had a feeling the gripping gauntlets would suit you, my friend. You will find keeping hold of your weapon, or of someone else, will be much easier." The raven haired half elf said with a soft smile. "I suppose that leaves me with the ring of force shield." She added as she took the bronze ring.

"What does that do?" The copper dragonkin inquired curiously.

"When active, I gain a bit more protection, and can repel magic missiles."

"Well, the protection is nice, but you cast more magic missiles than you take." Lolavina pointed out.

"Yes, but it's nice to have in a pinch."

"All that's left are these lovely potions." Luanne commented, pulling out a few glass flasks. There were a few healing potions, which she handed out to their front line battlers, and Lolavina, an elixir of magic stone, which she gave to Clyvor (as he was the only one with a sling and bullets to use it), and a potion that no one knew what it was. The sneaky halfling decided to hang onto this one, just to be safe; at least until they could find out what it was.

"So, what are you guys gonna do with your share of the gold?" Lanore asked everyone. Lolavina just shrugged, while Luanne pondered the question for a moment.

"I have a little idea of me own." Clyvor said with a thoughtful expression on his face. "Lucinda and I have been trekking across the land for some time, looking for work. While I dunno how the lass feels, looking for trouble where no trouble may exist...it's for the birds."

"It can be rather irritating, looking for jobs just to find nothing and have to keep moving." His magical friend agreed.

"So it got me to thinking...rather than looking for problems all over the place...why not let problems come to us?" The others in the room just looked at him like he suddenly had two heads. "I mean, if I can pull it off, I'm gonna be opening a guild in Orintar."

"A guild?" Lolavina scratched her head, looking lost.

"Yeah. A guild, for adventurers like us." He elaborated, gesturing to the group at large. "Where we can live and rest between jobs, find jobs to do, and maybe find a few new friends to fight alongside us…"

* * *

"...not only that, but it would be a convenient way to manage characters unable to make it to the campaign, as well as new characters." Clyde explained back in the real world. "Anyone who can't make it, their characters are resting back at the guild."

"Not a bad idea, Clyde." Lincoln said with a nod and smile. "And a new, possibly famous guild would be a magnet for attracting new adventurers, making it easier to bring characters into the game."

"Hmmm. I like the idea...but can we afford it?" The gothic Loud inquired.

"Well, if you want, we could make that your reward back in Orintar. A property to get your guild started." The one son suggested. "From there, you can customize it how you like."

"Like a library." The pale little girl suggested, imagining a private library and study the size of a public library.

"And a place for our mounts and animal friends." Lana piped up, the image of a regal indoor stable where she could hang out with Hops Sr and all the horses and ponies whenever she liked.

"A treasury to keep our treasures safe when we're not around." The family comedian said, her mind on a giant sized vault filled with gold and jewels.

"A little prayer room, open to all worshippers." Leni thought out loud, thinking of a small room with an alter and a few different busts of some of the more prominent gods and goddesses in the pantheon.

"A lovely little spa…" Lola sighed happily as she fantasized about few rooms for her character to get massages, rest in a sauna, or get beauty treatments.

"And maybe a place to train and spar." Clyde said, seeing what looked like a gladiatorial training arena, complete with magic resistant training targets and a sparring circle.

"Sounds like a plan then." Lincoln said with a chuckle. "And speaking of rewards, I have one more for you guys." That snapped everyone out of their fantasies, turning to look at the white haired boy. "From that adventure, you've earned enough experience points to gain a level. Congratulations. Welcome to level five."

"Yes!" Clyde cheered, raising his fists up in celebration.

"Fantastic." Lucy said with a slight grin.

"Is that good?" Leni inquired.

"It means most of use have access to third level spells." The occult fancier explained to her. "Not only that, but we get new class features, as well as one more hit dice."

"Ooooooh. Great!"

"And with that, I think that's a good place to stop for the evening." Lincoln said as he closed his notebook. "Great game everyone. You're off to a fantastic start."

"Thanks, Linc. It was lots of fun." Luan said as she stood up, taking her character sheet. "I was 'role'ing in the aisle. Hahahaha!"

"I enjoyed it too." Lana said, picking up Hops. "I can hardly wait for Lanore's next adventure."

"I had fun too, Lincoln." Leni commented, her usual smile on her face. "I'm still not sure I understand everything about the game, but it's been a fun experience."

"It's fine, Leni. There's a LOT to this game. I'm still learning new things about it." He said with a slight chuckle.

"I found the game enjoyable…" Lola started. "...but I would have liked more chances for Lolavina to use her charm."

"I'll see what I can do with the next campaign. Maybe put in a few more puzzles with the combat encounters too." Lincoln said as he started to clean up his dice and figurines. "Wanted to keep it pretty simple with this first game, so most of you can get a taste for the game. Now, I'll try and include a little something for as many of the characters as possible. Situations to warrant Lolavina's charisma, a chance for Lanore to do some tracking and encounter animals, some chances at thievery for Luanne, etc."

"When can we play again?" The excited tomboy twin asked. "Soon, I hope."

"It'll take some time to set up a brand new adventure." Clyde answered for his friend. "We usually meet weekly to play." Lincoln nodded in agreement.

"In the meantime, I suggest you work a bit on your character backstories." The middle Loud recommended, looking to the twins, Leni and Luan. "Having a backstory will help expand your characters, and will give me the chance to craft adventures around your characters."

"You mean we could have an adventure with Lolavina as the star!?" Lola squealed excitedly, the beauty obsessed twin nearly screaming with delight when her brother nodded. She scooped up her character sheet and character figure before she ran off toward her room, closely followed by her twin.

"Wow. That really got your attention, sis." Lana commented as she tried to keep up with Lola.

"A chance to be the star of my own story! I can hardly believe it!"

"Heh. That is pretty exciting, I'll give you that." The hat wearing twin said with a chuckle. "By the way, you said before you had picked divine soul for your sorceress class, yeah?" The pageant participant skidded to a stop, looking at her sister and nodding. "Why?" Lana inquired, stopping beside her.

"Well, for one, I didn't really like the other options. And second, it does fit. Like I said, she and I are simply divine." Lola kind of bragged with a grin. Her tomboy twin smirked. She had hoped her sister would say that again.

"That so? I guess you use your horns to keep your halo up." She quipped before running away laughing. She had been holding that in ever since her twin said it the first time. Lola's eyes flashed as she glared in her direction before she chased after her, intent on making her pay for that remark.


	4. Mystery at Clockwork Manor pt1

_AN: Damn, this was a tough one to get through. I originally wanted to write the whole adventure in one go, but this part took WAY too long to begin with...and I'm not even a third of the way done. So yeah, three parter for this one. Had a different plan for an end point too, but thought this could work too. Anyway, before getting to the story, just want to respond to a couple comments._

_Mr Haziq: Yes. With each new adventure, one or more of the players of the previous adventure will step aside, while new ones will take their place. Give everyone a chance to strut their stuff in game. Plus I didn't want to have more than six or seven characters in game at a time. It's tricky enough keeping track of the current party. I forgot Hops Sr existed a couple times during this chapter. And Sugarland will come into play more and more as the game goes on._

_LightofDarkness: Not sure when Lori will join. Possibly the game after this one._

_WaterDragonMaverick: Glad to see you're enjoying the story so far. You read my mind regarding Lenina (minus her departure from the team this game. Someone else is stepping aside) and Luna. Won't say too much more to avoid too many spoilers. Thanks for the suggestions._

_Nicholas: Truthfully, I have not. Never even seen Island of Dr Mordeau._

_Guest: You read my mind as well regarding Lynn, but she's not joining yet. Thanks for the suggestion though._

_And to everyone sending suggestions for characters for the sisters who haven't participated yet; thank you, but I already have their characters put together. Made them up before I started the story. What I meant in the previous chapter was I didn't have characters for Lincoln's friends and Ronnie Anne. Sorry for the confusion in that respect. Also, what do you guys think about getting the parents involved every once in a while? Also, I realized after making the previous chapters that the blindness/deafness spell and Clyvor's rage should have lasted longer than I depicted in the story. Turns out 1 minute is actually much longer than I thought with regard to combat. Ah well. Live and learn._

* * *

The Mystery of the Clockwork Manor pt 1

"Ugh….I just can't think of anything!" Lola groaned with frustration, laying on her back on her bed, her character sheet and a pencil on the bedside table. This was a few days after she, her siblings and Clyde had successfully completed their first adventure and, as Lincoln had recommended, she and Lana were trying to write up a backstory for their characters. The key word, of course, being trying. Lola seemed to be having a serious case of writer's block. Her twin looked up from the floor, Hops, El Diablo and Izzy huddled around her own character sheet with her.

"Having trouble, Lola?" She asked.

"Am I ever...I want my character to be unique among storybook princesses, but I'm at a loss…"

"...because being a fire throwing princess isn't unique at all." Lana said sarcastically.

"...don't sass me, sister...I am in no mood." The pageant princess growled.

"Hehehe. Ok. Ok. I'm sorry." The animal lover of the two said with a giggle before she moved over beside her sister's bed. "So...what have you got?"

"Well, Lolavina is the princess of the kingdom of Sugarland, like I said. She ran away from home recently...but the reason why is where I am stuck…" The more short tempered of the twins explained. "I don't want it to be because of her family or anything...and I don't want her to look bad either…"

"Hmmmm. I think you need to talk to Lucy." Lana suggested. "She knows more about writing than I do...or ask Lincoln. He wrote the adventure we went on, so he can tell a dang good story."

"...I guess I could do that...I hope Lucy isn't busy."

"When has that ever stopped you before?"

"...what did I tell you about sassing me…?"

* * *

A few rooms down, Luan was having similar issues with her own character. She just couldn't really think of what drove her character to go on adventures. She was discussing the situation with her ventriloquist dummy when Luna stuck her head down from the top bunk of their bed. "Hey. What's all the hubbub, sis?"

"Just trying to figure out what to do with my character in the game I played with Linc and the others." The family joker replied, her head resting on her hand. "My character isn't really a complicated one, but I can't figure out what motivates her to go out and quest. Know what I mean?"

"Hmmm. Maybe you need to step away from the project for a bit." Luna suggested before climbing down. "And come back later with a fresh perspective."

"Maybe you're right. And there's no real urgency. Lincoln didn't say we had to have backstories ready before the next game." Luan said with a small smile, closing the little journal she was writing in.

"Speaking of, when is the next game?"

"This friday, I think. Why? Interested in getting in on the act?"

"Yep, so I thought I would get a character put together, but I'm not sure where to start." The family clown grinned, setting her wooden friend down and hopping off her bed.

"Well, maybe I can give you a hand there." Luan said, pulling a false hand on a stick from behind her back. After a quick chuckle, she continued, "Let's go pay Linc a visit and see if we can borrow his books."

A few minutes later, Luan and Luna were sitting on Luan's mini stage, a small stack of source books between them and a fresh character sheet in front of her. "Alright, so what kinda character you thinking of?" The pun loving sister inquired.

"Hmmmm. This bard class is really speaking to me." The rock and roll Loud replied, looking at the page in the player's handbook. Luan leans over for a look before glancing at her sister.

"Uh...are you sure, Luna?" She asked with concern. "Linc's last game was pretty combat heavy, and bards...kinda hit a sour note in that regard." She quipped with a giggle.

"Don't you worry, sis. I'll make it work. She'll be ready to fight for the right, if she's gonna rock and roll like me." Luna said with a smile, taking a few notes on her sheet.

"If you say so." Luan said with a shrug. "In which case, according to the book, you'll need a lot of charisma…"

"Got it. In fact, this race gets a nice little bonus to charisma." Luna said as she made a note of her character's race. "Dexterity too."

"Good. You'll need that to keep yourself alive and enemies not so much. And don't forget to add some points for being over level four too."

"Right on...now for spells...think I'll be a Jane of all trades there too. Carry a few to hurt, a few to heal and a few help." Luna thought out loud.

"Looks like you get a LOT of skills under your belt too. Almost as many as my rogue."

"More, if I go with this college…"

* * *

Meanwhile, in the room next door, Lola was expressing her concerns for her character with Lucy, who was listening in silence."...So what do you think?"

"I see your problem." Lucy told her, sitting on her bed. "Let's see...your character ran away from home...but you don't want the typical story…" Lola nodded, looking hopefully at her older sister. "Well, why not take it a different direction?"

"What do you mean?"

"Tell me how this sounds: Lolavina is set to marry someone from another kingdom. However, she overheard that they had dastardly intentions for the kingdoms and her parents. None of this can come to fruition until he is wed to her, so…"

"Lolavina runs away, in order to protect her family and kingdom! I like it!" Lola exclaimed, looking excited. "Thanks Lucy!" She said before she ran off to her own room. Lucy smiled slightly, pleased to hear her little sister so eager to expand her character further. Not long after the pageant princess made herself scarce, Lucy's sports loving roommate came limping in, looking outright ticked. She had a cast on her right foot.

"This stinks!" Lynn shouted as she flopped onto her bed. "One bad kick on the soccer field and I break my toes."

"These things happen, Lynn…" She told her in a monotone.

"Not to me! I'm supposed to be made of tougher stuff than that!" She complained loudly. "Doc says I'm going to be out of the game for at least two weeks…"

"I'm sorry to hear that, Lynn…" The eight year old goth said, and she meant it. She knew her older sister and roommate. She was miserable when she was inactive and miserable when she was bored. Put them together, and Lynn was no doubt in for a bad time. But maybe, in her injured state, their sisters will be more generous with the tv remote, Lucy thought. Perhaps wishful thinking, but who knows? It could happen.

* * *

Friday afternoon finally arrives, and most of the Loud children were beside themselves with excitement. After the last game, they really wanted to see what Lincoln would come up with next. Well, except for one. Luan had been invited to a sleepover with some of her friends, so she couldn't make the game. The white haired lad was a little disappointed, but he knew how it was. Not all players could make every game. He was getting the garage set up with Clyde as his sisters about to play were getting their act together. Meanwhile, Lynn Jr was sitting on the couch, slumped over as she channel surfed on the television. The rest of the family, as Lucy had hoped, was sympathetic to her injury and gave her more control over the tv remote. This helped her for the first few days, but today, she couldn't find a thing to watch and she was bored out of her mind. She sighed as she turned the television off, turning her head to the stairs as she heard Leni and Luna coming down the stairs. She had to raise an eyebrow as she saw the second oldest of the sisters in a flowing white gown, and the third oldest of them was carrying a lyre. The two head into the garage, soon followed by an excited Lola and Lana. "What's going on?" Lynn inquired as her gothic roommate started to descend the stairs.

"It's game day." Lucy explained in a monotone. "If you aren't doing anything, why don't you join us? I think we have all the players we need, but you could probably watch if you like." The sporty Loud just stared at her for a moment before she sighed.

"...I must be bored…" She moaned quietly before she stood up and limped her way toward the garage. Inside the garage, Lincoln was chatting with Luna, telling her how pleased he was she was giving the game a try, Lana and Clyde were discussing their leveled up characters, and Lola was complimenting Leni on her new gown. The tables had already been set up, with the game master's screen, a couple grid maps, the box of figurines and dice, and a small box of pens and pencils. Clyde looked up as Lucy entered the room and noticed a somewhat grumpy Lynn coming in right behind her.

"Hey Lynn. Are you joining the game too?" The bespectacled african american boy inquired.

"...nah. Just nothing on tv, so Lucy convinced me to come watch…" She said, lifting herself onto the stool and getting ready to be even more bored. It was then Lincoln's friend noticed her cast.

"Whoa! Are you ok, Lynn?" He asked in concern. "Did you break your foot kicking someone's butt?" Lynn couldn't help but chuckle at that, as did a couple of her sisters and her brother.

"No, but I like that guess." She said. "Kicked a goal post instead of a soccer ball."

"Ouch...sorry to hear that…"

"Eh. I'll live." The toughest of the siblings said with a shrug.

"Alrighty then." The one son said as he moved behind the GM screen. "Everyone all set?" A few of the players nodded, with Lola being the first to speak up.

"I'm all ready. I even have Lolavina's backstory ready!"

"Really?" The middle Loud asked with a smile. "Care to share it?"

"But of course." The prissy twin said with a big smile. "Ahem. Lolavina is the princess of the beautiful kingdom of Sugarland. A land where gumdrops and lollipops grow on trees...literally." While she related her character's story, Lynn rolled her eyes and pretended to be sick to her stomach. "One day, when the elf princess came of age, her parents told her about an arranged marriage between her and the duke of a neighboring Sourpatch Kingdom. She got along well with him at first and was happy to go along with the wedding...until one night, she was going to surprise him with a visit to his room when she heard voices. One was her prospective husband's, but the other, she didn't recognize, so she started to listen in. Turns out, the arranged wedding was a plot by the duke to seize control of Sugarland; marry Lolavina, get her parents out of the way, become king, get Lolavina out of the way, then rule Sugarland and Sourpatch."

"Oh no…" Leni gasped. "What an awful man…"

"Oh, he is. Lolavina had heard the whole thing, so she decided right then and there that she had to run away. So she took the essentials and fled from the palace. She knew her parents would be safe for the time being, since the duke needed them alive until after the wedding for his plan to work. So now, she's on the run, hoping to never run into someone from Sugarland or Sourpatch and that she can find help to save her family and kingdom."

"She's got a funny way of showing it." Lana said with a bit of a smirk. "But seriously, nice story, Lola."

"Yeah. That should be pretty easy to turn into its own adventure." Lincoln said with a smile. "Anyone else want to share their character's backstories before we start?"

"I will!" Leni volunteered with enthusiasm. "Lenina was born into the Sisterhood of Sune…"

"Sisterhood? You mean all her worshippers are women?" Lynn interrupted, getting shushed by Lola, Lana and Luna.

"Yes, but only the temple where she belonged and not because it was required. Just kinda happened that way." Leni explained. "Anyway, she wants to become a high priestess someday, but before she can do that, she totes has to find her one true love. So she left the temple in search of true love, while spreading the word of Sune in the process."

"Awwwwww." Lola cooed, leaning against the table with a wide eyed expression.

"Well, if we're all sharing, here's mine." Lana interjected before clearing her throat. "Lanore was the daughter of a dragon mother, but was left in the care of a group called the Wild Guard; rangers and druids who protect nature from bad people and stuff. They raised her to adulthood, teaching her the ways of nature and how some people create unnatural creatures through one way or another. This built her to who she is today. When her training was complete, she set out on her own to find her own way to protect nature, and to find her true mother."

"Simple, yet solid. Nice Lana." Clyde complimented with a nod.

"I'mma hold off a bit. I'm still working on mine." Luna said.

"You'll learn of Lucinda and Clyvor's soon enough." Lucy said to the others before looking to Lincoln. "I believe we are ready now, Lincoln." From her stool on the sideline, Lynn frowned a bit. She was actually getting kinda interested in hearing what the others had for their stories.

"Very well. To recap from what happened last time, the group met in the town of Orintar, where they learned sailors and dock workers had been disappearing and ships were being mysteriously sunk. To figure out the cause of the problem, the team joined a ship carrying valuable cargo aboard, only to be attacked by a kuo toa raiding party…"

"What's a kuo toa?" Lynn asked. In answer, Lincoln pulled out one of the fish people figurines and showed it to her. "That's one ugly sardine…"

"No kidding." Lola agreed, frowning at the little monster.

"After repelling the invading fish folk and slaying their 'god'..."

"Whoa whoa whoa...they took down a god!?" Lynn exclaimed in surprise, getting shushed by the others again.

"Well, it was actually a giant, mutant lobster from olden times, but the kuo toa thought it was a god." Lincoln elaborated upon before continuing. "...the party ended up the prisoners of the kuo toa. Fortunately, through spell, skullduggery and courage, the party managed to not only escape, but saved many slaves and potential sacrifices from them. Upon helping them get away, they confronted the high priest, who was in the process of summoning a new god. The spell failed, resulting in him summoning three Gibbering Mouthers instead…" Before his older, more athletic sister could interrupt again, he showed her the figure of the mouther. "After a brutal fight, they emerged victorious and escaped from the city of the Kuo Toa. As their reward, they were granted their own guild within the city, so they could recruit new members and find jobs easier."

"Whoa...all that happened in one game?" Lynn asked in surprise.

"Sure did." Clyde responded. "There was some other things, but that was the important stuff."

"We return to the port city of Orintar, where some of the party is checking out the new guild building…"

* * *

Once, it was an old, abandoned building a stone's throw from the Triton's Gem. It was filthy and run down, on a nice stretch of land with plenty of room for improvement. Now, however, it was in the process of being completely renovated, with an extension being built beside it. Gnome, dwarf, human and even a goliath worker were working hard to get the building back up to code, both inside and out. On the inside, Clyvor and Lucinda were examining the inside from the spacious entry room. In their eyes, the reconstruction was going well. The floors were already replaced and reinforced, the walls in the process of being replaced and painted, and the stairs were in the process of being replaced. Fortunately, Lenina was willing to lend the workers her portable ladder, so they could work on the second floor to get the places for members to sleep ready. Unfortunately, they couldn't get all the additions every member of the party wanted. It took some serious debate and back and forth, but the team managed to decide on a few essential addons: a library for research purposes, the vault to protect their loot and pay, and a stable to save on costs with their mounts and Hops Sr. Lolavina wasn't thrilled, but as they didn't have the gold to shell out for her insisted upgrade and neither did she, she had to just deal with it. Speaking of the rest of the group, they were off doing their own things. Lenina went off to the church to find an altar of Sune to pray at, Luanne was down in the basement to oversee the construction of the vault, and Lanore and Lolavina were at the tavern. The dragonborn woman was enjoying a cup of tea, while the elven princess was drinking deep from a sugary, syrupy drink. "Geez. Want a little drink to go with all that sugar?" Lanore teased with a smirk as the enchantress licked her lips, her beverage finished.

"If you must know, Lanore, my people thrive on sugar." She replied in an almost snobbish manner.

"No fooling?"

"No fooling. The elves of Sugarland have adapted over time to get most of the nutrition they need from sugar and similarly sweet things."

("If only we could get that in real life, eh?" Lana said with a soft giggle.) Lanore just nodded lightly as she sipped her tea. Over the general chatter of the pub, something caught Lolavina's pointed ear. She blinked as she looked toward the door. It was faint, but she could swear she heard music. She tugged on Lanore's arm and nudged her head in the direction where she heard the music. The draconic woman tilted her head, as she couldn't hear the music. The magical princess rolled her eyes, left a few coins on the table as a tip for her waitress and headed for the door. Concerned, Lanore left a tip of her own and rushed after Lolavina. She found her standing just outside the tavern, just listening. This time, the ranger could hear the music: soft harp like music coming from the docks.

* * *

As Lincoln described the music, Luna took that opportunity to play her lyre, providing a little auditory assistance. She played slowly, but beautifully, sounding like she were at a renaissance faire. "Wow. Way to set the mood, Luna." Lincoln commented with a smile.

"Cheers, bro."

"Where'd you get the cute little harp, Luna? And learn to play so well?" Leni asked.

"It's a lyre, Leni." Luna started to explain.

"It is? Well, if it can't tell the truth…"

"Not a liar, sis…" The musically inclined sister interrupted with a soft laugh. "L y r e. It's like a harp, but with a few small differences. And I saved up my allowance for a while to get it. I'm still learning, but I'm getting the hang of it, I think."

* * *

The princess and the dragonborn follow their ears down to the docks where they saw an elf leaning against one of the many barrels that lined the pier, playing her lyre with nary a care in the world. Her skin was the color of midnight, with short, silvery hair. She was wearing a fine scarlet silk long sleeve tunic, dark brown pants and boots, and a maroon cape. On her head was a black wide brim hat with a dark gray feather sticking out of it. On her belt was a scabbard for a short sword on either side of her. She doesn't notice the two as she plucked away at her instrument, lost in her own music, and the pair didn't say a word; they were listening too intently to her playing. When she eventually finished playing, she slowly looked up and smiled to the two nearby. "'Ello." She greeted them with a british accent. "I'm not disturbing you, am I?"

"Oh no!" Lolavina said quickly with a shake of her head. "Not at all."

"We just heard your music and came to check it out." Lanore added. "You play great."

"Cheers, ladies." The drow replied, straightening up and putting her lyre away. "I am Lunaris, professional bard, at your service." She introduced herself with a bow.

"I'm Lanore." The dragonborn ranger introduced herself. "And she's Princess Lolavina."

"Charmed." Lolavina said with a light curtsy.

"Likewise, ma'am." Lunaris replied. ("On a side note, if she's trying to hide, shouldn't she be keeping her title secret?" Luna inquired of Lola.

"One: she's proud of her title. And two...well, I never said she was good at hiding…" Lola answered with a shrug.)

"So, what brings you here?" Lanore inquired, shaking the bard's hand.

"Like most folks, I'm looking for work." She explained simply. "A music gig, someone needing a helping hand, whatever I can find. Know what I'm saying?" The elf and dragonborn both nodded, when Lanore got an idea.

"Hey! How about you come with us?" She suggested. "We're starting up an adventurer's guild here in town, and I'm sure we could use a few extra hands."

"Err...are you sure, Lanore…?" The spellcasting princess said in a quiet voice.

"That so?" Lunaris asked with a grin. "Bonus. Lead the way, Lanore." The draconic woman nodded and started to escort their potential new friend toward the guild building, Lolavina running up next to her, still whispering.

"Lanore...I know you're trying to help the guild, but she's a bard, not an adventurer…"

"Well, you're a princess, not an adventurer, but you managed just fine." Lanore retorted quietly.

"...touche, but what is she going to do? Sing at our problems?"

"That's just being unfair, your 'ighness." Lunaris said, causing Lolavina to flinch, the bard laughing a little.

"You...heard that?"

"I'm an elf, mate, like you. My ears are pretty darn keen." She replied, pointing at her pointed ears. Lolavina just blushed and looked away, too sheepish to argue any further as Lanore and Lunaris just laughed.

* * *

Back at the guild hall…

"...Looks good so far, me boy." Clyvor said as he spoke with the foreman about the progress made so far. "So yer saying we could have the main hall all set by tomorrow?"

"Yes sir." The balding, gnomish foreman replied with a nod. "And should have the stairs up to code by the end of the day. The upstairs, probably a few days after week end. The vault and stables...well, that'll be a few weeks more, since they're being made from scratch."

"No need to be worrying yourself over it. I knew it would take a wee bit of time, but if you want it done right, it always does."

"Amen to that." The gnome said with a nod.

"Clyvor...we have a visitor." Lucinda suddenly said, causing her barbarian friend and the foreman to flinch. She had been so quiet up to this point, they had forgotten she was there. The dark skinned dwarf turned to see a wall, cloaked female figure enter the building. He couldn't tell much about her from the hooded cloak, but was able to ascertain a few things: she was wearing a fine linen gown, pearly white stockings and pitch black heels. Her cloak was a dusty gray which covered her face quite effectively. Her arms were hidden under the cloak as well.

"Good day to you…" She said in a soft, almost sing song voice.

"Top of the afternoon to you, miss." Clyvor replied, polite but apprehensive.

"I realize that your business isn't necessarily open yet, but I am in need of help and do not know where else to turn…" The cloaked woman said, sounding close to tears.

"Now now, ma'am. No need for tears. The building might not be finished, but we might still be able to help you." He moved a box over for her to sit down on (as they didn't have any furniture present). "So, what appears to be the problem, miss?"

"I'm looking for a man who has gone missing...it is vitally important that I locate him."

"We're going to need more details than that." Lucinda said flatly. The woman slowly glanced around at all the workers present, then started to whisper, forcing Clyvor to get closer to hear.

"I am looking for a gnome artificer, tinkerer, and inventor. He goes by the name of Gizanoe." She explained quietly. "My client wishes to commission his talents for a very important job...however, it appears he has gone missing…"

"What exactly is this job?"

"I'm afraid that is a matter only to be discussed with Gizanoe himself…" Lucinda frowned when she heard this, but this was not altogether an unusual request, so she held her tongue.

"Where was the guy last seen?" The burly dwarf asked, stroking his bushy beard.

"He was last seen inside his home, a few hours ride from town. Rather secluded, which is how he prefers it."

"Reclusive?"

"More protective of his own creations. He's a brilliant mind. Eccentric, but brilliant." The hooded woman pulled a map from her cloak and handed it to Clyvor. On it was marked the location of Gizanoe's home.

"I see...would you be so kind as to excuse us a moment, ma'am?" The woman nodded, to which Lucinda and Clyvor stepped away for a private conference. "What do you think, Lucinda?" He asked his scholarly friend quietly.

"I don't trust her…" The pale wizard replied under her breath.

"Shocker…" Clyvor muttered sarcastically. "Beyond that, lass…"

"...if she is telling the truth, it may be worth investigating." Lucinda said, after leering at the dwarf for his comment. "The disappearance of a brilliant inventor never bodes well."

"I agree there…" The dwarf said with a nod before the two looked to the mystery woman. "Alright, ma'am. We'll take the job."

"Thank you so much, sir...my client will surely reward you handsomely." She replied before she rose from her seat. "Meet me at the Veiled Siren inn once you've found Gizanoe, or at least have information regarding his disappearance."

"Aye, ma'am." Clyvor said, before the woman took her leave. "Well, we better go find the others."

"I will go get Luanne, then seek out Lenina." Lucinda said.

"And I'll find Lanore and Lolavina." The two of them nodded in unison, the raven haired wizard headed for the stairs down to the basement while the mighty barbarian dashed outside.

* * *

Lenina, meanwhile, had approached the statue of the goddess of love and beauty in the city temple. As one would expect, the temple was rather crowded, with several worshippers around each statue, and Sune's was certainly no exception. She looked up at the marble and bronze statue of the gorgeous, long haired woman, wearing a very revealing, flowing robe. The gnomish cleric fell to her knees, put her hands together, closed her eyes, and started to pray under her breath. "Beautiful Sune...I pray for your forgiveness, for I have sinned…" She muttered, a tear dribbling from her eye. "I took the life of another creature recently…"

"...my darling child, Lenina…" The golden haired cleric's eyes sprang wide open in shock. For a second there, she could have sworn she heard the melodious voice of her goddess. She looked around for a moment, wondering it anyone else heard that. "Do not be alarmed, young one. I am speaking only to you at this moment." Her eyes grew as she slowly looked up at the statue, even though it wasn't moving in the slightest. "I have felt the great weight in your heart and-"

* * *

Lincoln was interrupted in his dialogue (in a soft, feminine voice) by the sound of barely disguised snickering and outright laughing. He stopped and glared around the table: Lola was red in the face, about to burst from the effort of holding in her laughter, Clyde was sweating, a silly grin on his face, Luna and Lana had both hands over their mouths to stifle their hysterics, and Lynn was rolling on the floor laughing. The only ones who weren't laughing at all were Leni (engaged in the roleplaying) and Lucy (though it was a VERY tough battle for her). "...something wrong?" He asked in a warning tone.

"HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Lynn laughed, holding her sides. "That voice is hysterical coming out of you!"

"It works too well for you, Linky!" Lola finally spat out, laughing. That opened the floodgates, causing Luna, Lana, and Clyde to burst out in laughter.

"Sorry buddy, but it is pretty funny." Lincoln's nerdy friend apologized through his hysterics. The one son sighed and slowly turned toward his goth younger sister, who was shaking from the effort of holding in her laughs.

"...go ahead Lucy…" He said in a resigned voice. "Get it out of your system…"

"My apologies, Lincoln…" The poetic sister said before falling prey to a fit of giggles. Lincoln rested his head on his arm as he waited for everyone apart from Leni to stop laughing at him for his Sune voice.

"Why's everyone laughing?" The sweet, but air headed teen inquired.

"Didn't you hear that voice he did?" The sports centered teen asked, still laughing.

"Yeah. So? He was just, like, doing a voice for Sune, and I appreciate him doing that. Really gets me into the game."

"Thank you, Leni." He said to her, giving her a smile. It took a minute or two for the players to stop. The white haired GM decided not to bother waiting for Lynn to calm down, and attempted to soldier on.

* * *

"-and it saddened me greatly to feel such pain in you." The voice of Sune said in Lenina's head. The kind hearted healer's face fell when she heard this. "Oh no. I am not scolding you, Lenina, nor am I upset."

"You aren't?" The surprised Lenina asked quietly.

"Certainly not. Yes, I do not usually approve of the slaughter of other living creatures. However, I understand that to survive, my priests need to defend themselves, as well as those they love most. What had occurred under the sea was exactly that; you protecting a friend you hold so dear." Lenina felt a smile starting to spread across her face, her eyes starting to fill with more tears. "You are a great priestess, Lenina. Continue to let your heart be your guide, and you shan't be led astray."

"I will, my goddess…" The voice of Sune soon left her mind as she got to her feet again.

"...feeling better, Lenina?" Lucinda inquired out of nowhere, causing the gnome and those around her to jump and gasp.

"Oh. Hello Lucinda." The follower of Sune said, once she realized it was just her dark cloaked friend. "Yes. I am feeling more at ease, thank you."

"Good. Come with me. We have our first job of the guild…" The half elf wizard explained, starting to escort her out of the temple.

"Wonderful." Lenina chirped, smiling brightly. The two of them reunited with the others in front of their favorite tavern, where they immediately took notice of the new face among them.

"There you are, lasses...say, where's Luanne?" Clyvor asked, noticing the rogue was absent.

"Sigh. She couldn't get away from the vault work." Lucinda explained. "She wants to make sure it was positively thief proof." She then turned to Lunaris. "And who may I ask are you?"

"Names Lunaris, mate. Might I get your names?"

"I am Lucinda, scholar and practitioner of magic." The raven haired half elf introduced herself.

"And I am Lenina. A pleasure to meet you." The cleric with the long gold hair said, shaking the tall drow's hand.

"Likewise. So, what's this job you were talking about, Clyvor?" The dark elf bard asked, turning to the powerful dwarf.

"We were asked to find a missing person." Clyvor explained, motioning them all to huddle up. "A gnome inventor named Gizanoe is being sought for some important work, but he had recently gone missing…"

"So we gotta track him down?" Lanore inquired.

"Exactly."

"According to our client, he was last seen at his own home…" Lucinda elaborated, Clyvor getting the map out to show them all.

"It's a bit of a distance, but I think we can manage." The dragonborn ranger said with a small smile. "When do we leave?"

"ASAP." The powerful dwarf stated. "We'll want to get there before it gets too dark."

"Then let's ride, mates!" Lunaris exclaimed as she ran for the stables, Lanore following close behind.

"I'll catch up in a bit, lassies." Clyvor called out. "Gonna grab a few supplies."

"And I should go get my ladder." Lenina said, running toward the guild hall.

"We'll meet you outside the city." Lucinda replied, walking with Lolavina toward the stables.

* * *

It took the unofficial leader of the group about forty minutes to meet up with the others, his bag full of rations and a few essentials. The trip wasn't necessarily long, but he wanted to be safe. These things rarely ever went as planned after all. The hours long journey to the inventor's house was fairly uneventful, save for an ambush by a few bugbear bandits in the woods (in which Lincoln's sisters learned of the random encounter). Nothing they couldn't handle. As the sun was starting to set, they finally arrive at their destination: a massive manor house built of wood, bronze and marble. It was as large as a palace, with marble pillars supporting the roof over the porch. Large bronze gears decorated the exterior walls, with a particular big cog right over the gilded front door. From the side of the house they could see, there were at least fifteen windows between the first and second floors, all with the curtains drawn. The surrounding woods were several yards away, with no bushes, hedges, or even tall grass anywhere near the building. Only a few tree stumps, cut as close to the ground as possible. "...Wow." Lolavina said in awe as she looked at the impressive structure.

"It's so big…" Lenina commented.

"Seems being an inventor is working out nicely for him." Clyvor said, clearly quite impressed.

"Seems he is also paranoid of intruders…" Lucinda said as she looked at the wide open space around the house. "We should approach with caution…"

"Surein, you are right there, Luc. Lanore, think you can-"

"Hey guys. The door is locked." All eyes went to the door, where Lenina was trying to open the door. Clyvor face palmed and Lucina sighed loudly.

"Lenina, next time, don't just try to open an unknown door…" The pale half elf said in an irritated tone. "It could have been trapped."

"Oh. Sorry…" The gnome cleric replied apologetically.

"It's alright, lass, but you need to be careful, especially without Luanne with us." Clyvor said as he and the others moved closer. "Hmmmm. Anyone have any skill with unlocking?"

"No...but I have a spell that may help." Lunaris said. "Back up, just in case." Her five allies and Hops Sr all backed away from the door as the drow's hands started to glow. "...knock knock." She chanted.

* * *

"Who's there?" Lana responded, getting groans from her siblings.

"What was that about, Lana?" Clyde inquired, tilting his head. "That was more something I expect from Luan."

"Yeah, but since she's not here, someone had to do it." The handy gal replied with a shrug.

"Fair enough, I guess."

* * *

After casting the spell, a loud knocking sound rang from the door as it magically unlocked. Clyvor and Lanore reached for their weapons in case there was trouble. Nothing so far. The dark haired dwarf slowly approached the door and tried to open it. Still nothing happened. "...Looks like it's alright." To be safe, he went in first, the others following suite once they were all sure nothing happened. The entry room of the manor was VERY lavishly decorated: The floor right in front of the door was lined with several yards of red carpet, leading up to a set of mahogany stairs with polished banisters. The floor was all shining gray tile A few suits of gnome sized suits of armor stood beside either side of the stairs. Overhead was a sterling silver and crystal chandelier. There were at least three doors in either direction to the left or right of the enormous room on the ground floor, and several more on the upper level.

"Woooooow…." Lanore said once more.

"It's even more grand on the inside…" A wonderstruck Lolavina said with a big grin on her face. "...do you think we could keep this place if we can't find Gizanoe?" Clyvor, Lanore, and Lucinda slowly turned to look at her with a glare, not noticing as the rug shuddered a bit under them. "...what?"

"...well, here we are…" Clyvor said, not even dignifying what she said. "The place looks pretty well maintained, so he probably hasn't been gone long."

"No sign of a struggle either...least not here." Lunaris commented.

"Indeed. But we can't rule out the possibility of kidnap anyway." Lucinda said, the rug twitching again, though no one noticed.

"So, how do we proceed?" The drow bard asked as the crew started toward the stairs. As soon as they stepped off the carpet, it sprang to life, wrapping tightly around Lanore. The dragonborn gasped, which was muffled by the thick cotton carpet.

"Lanore!" Clyvor shouted. Before he could act, the two suits of armor came to life, each holding a battle ax. "Ah, for the love of…"

"Should have known it wasn't going to be that easy…" Lolavina said as she readied herself for battle.

"Lunaris, think you can handle the other armor?"

"No problem." The musical elf said with a smirk, drawing her two swords.

"Right then. I'll take this one. Lucinda, try and get Lanore out of that rug." Clyvor instructed, charging at the enchanted armor to the left.

"Got it. Lenina, Lolavina…"

"One step ahead of you." Lolavina said, moving over near the drow bard engaging the right armor, while Lenina stood between everyone, ready to help whoever needed her most.

* * *

"...don't it just figure. I win initiative…" Lana complained, looking a little sour.

"Oooh...Sorry, Lana…" Lincoln said with a pained expression, rolling some dice behind his screen. "...but Lanore takes eight points of damage."

"WHAT!?" Lynn snapped, looking angry. "What for!?"

"Lanore was attacked by an animated object called a Rug of Smothering." The one son explained, showing his hotheaded older sister the entry in the Monster Manual. "While it has someone in its grasp, it deals damage every one of their turns." The sporty sister leered at the page, then grumbled something . "Calm down, Lynn. They're pretty good players. They'll find a way out of this. Besides, there has to be an element of danger, or there's not much adventure."

"I guess…."

* * *

The dragonborn ranger struggled and squirmed in the grip of the constricting carpet, choking as the air was being squeezed out of her, with no ability to get any more. She flexed her draconic muscles to try and break free, but she couldn't quite manage it. The right most armor acted next, swinging its axe at Lunaris. However, the dark elf was quite agile and able to easily avoid the swing, while retaliating with a swing from her main hand sword and a thrust from her off hand weapon. "Looks like you just can't hack it, mate." She stung with a smirk.

("Oh, please tell me you're not going to do that every battle…" Lola groaned, gripping the bridge of her nose. "It's bad enough we have Luan doing that every day." Luna chuckled nervously, her eyes kinda darting back and forth.)

Lucinda looked down at the animated rug, the gears in her head turning. There's no way that rug could be mechanical, so it must be magical, she reasoned. 'And if that's the case, I can do this.' She thought to herself. "Mystic powers, cleanse the magical influence upon this object. Dispel magic!" The living carpet trebled and twitched violently as Lucy's spell affected it, before it fell limp. With that out of the way, she knelt down and started to help Lanore out of the entanglement of silk.

"Whew. Thanks Lucinda." The dragonborn gal said after taking a deep breath.

"Anytime." The half elf wizard replied as she helped her up.

"Brilliant, Luc!" Clyvor called out as his hammer slammed into the helmet of the suit of armor threatening him and his team, knocking its head clean off. It didn't stop it in the slightest, but it gave the dwarf a bit of a chuckle. That wasn't all either, as he had a second attack coming to him. The next swing knocked off the left arm from the animated enemy.

"Magic missile!" Lolavina chanted, unleashing a barrage of force darts into the animated armor doing battle with Lunaris. The attack put some serious dents into it to go with the scratches the bard had left. While the group had their focus on the armor and the rug, the chandelier started to shake on the ceiling. The clattering got the attention of Lanore's giant frog companion, who looked up just as a rain of crystal shards started to fall toward Lanore and Lucinda. Reacting quickly, Hops Sr stuck his long tongue out, wrapping it around his best friend's wrist and pulling her out of the way. The pale wizard simply looked up, raising one fist into the air. From the ring on that hand, a shimmering shield had formed, deflecting the sharp pieces of crystal away from her.

("Sometimes, one extra point in AC makes all the difference." Lucy commented with a satisfied smile).

"Whew. That was close. Thanks partner." Lanore said with a smile, patting Hops Sr on the nose.

"Ah, bloody hell…" The burly barbarian grumbled as he looked up at the ceiling fixture, paying his opponent little mind as it managed to leave a gash in his arm with its ax. "Sneaky…"

"Let's focus on these goons first." Lunaris suggested. "Don't think it'll be able to have another go at us anytime soon anyway."

"With Sune's love, be healed." Lenina chanted as she magically mended Clyvor's injury. With her freedom from the constricting carpet, Lanore took the chance to help her latest ally do battle with the empty suit of armor. She moved to the right flank of the animated suit and slashed at it with her scimitar, putting a deep scratch into it.

"Cheers, Lanore." The drow bard said, ducking under the next swing of the ax. "Ha. You couldn't hit the broadside of a dragon!" She taunted the animated construct, a dark purple magical aura surrounding it.

* * *

"Uh...Luna…" Lincoln started to say as his rock and roll sister was rolling some dice.

"Seven. That's seven psychic damage." Luna declared with a smile.

"Actually...no." The white haired DM said with an apologetic look, his third oldest sister looking at him a little confused. "The animated armor is a construct, and constructs are immune to psychic damage. Your Vicious Mockery spell can't hurt them."

"Really? Aw man...I made a mistake, yes I did, yes I did…" Luna groaned, face palming and shaking her head in embarrassment..

"Don't worry about it, Luna. We all make that kind of mistake sometimes." Clyde said, trying to comfort her. "Lincoln here once tried to cast sleep on an elf."

"It was my first time playing…" Lincoln replied defensively, his cheeks turning kinda red.

"My point exactly. It's just something that happens." The african american boy said. "It's how we learn."

"I guess...and it's not like it really threw the battle askew for us." Luna commented with a slight smile.

"Exactly."

* * *

The pale wizard stepped out from under the hanging iron fixture before turning her attention to the ambulatory armor currently attempting to menace the agile bard. With a wave of her hand, the construct getting pelted with enough magic missiles to end its simulated life for good. Clyvor followed up with a solid hit with his hammer, ending the second walking metal suit in an instant. "Three down, and one to go." The burly dwarf said, looking up at the barren chandelier.

"But how are we going to get up to it?" Lanore inquired.

"I dunno, but lucky for us, we don't need to worry about that." Lolavina replied. "Scorching Ray!" She chanted, sending three fiery orange beams of magic toward the hanging ornament. The first beam struck it hard, melting one of it's metal bars. The other two, however, missing. When they hit the wall and ceiling, the beams simply fizzled instead of igniting them. "Huh?"

"He must have magic proofed his home." Lucinda commented. "Not sure if it's to protect his home from his experiments, or possible magical attack...either way, rather clever." Just then, the chandelier started to vibrate, causing a somewhat annoying humming. The crystals it had dropped before were levitating back up to their original fixtures. That didn't bode very well to the two veteran players of the game, though the rest of the crew were somewhat uneasy too.

"Oh! I have an idea!" Lenina suddenly chirped. She reached into her pack and pulled out her portable ladder. "Extend!" Her magical tool of elevation stretched itself out until it could reach the chandelier.

"Hey. Not a bad idea there." Clyvor said with an approving nod. "Only one of us can get up there, but it's a step in the right direction."

"Thanks."

"You can take it, lassie." The dark skinned dwarf told the draconic ranger as he pulled out a sling from his side.

"Thanks, buddy." Lanore said, positioning herself on the ladder and starting to climb up to her target. She lashed out with her curved sword, scratching the surface of its metal form, followed by a second swing that scratched the chain. Lunaris looked up at the enchanted chandelier with a frown. None of her offensive spells could really affect it, and she couldn't really get into a good position to help Lanore, so she had to bide her time. The somewhat brooding wizard, on the other hand, had plenty of options to help, and she planned to stick to the most tried and true of them all: magic missiles. A torrent of magical energy flew from her hand and pelted the animated object, causing it to tremble and shake with each hit. The dwarven barbarian reached in a pouch at his hip, drawing a glowing pellet from it. After loading it into his sling, he hurled the bullet at the chandelier, shattering a few of the crystals in the attack. The second shot, however, went wide and bounced off the ceiling.

"Goddess, please grant me your protection from the evils of the world…" Lolavina prayed, a glowing shield surrounding her. This seemed like good timing, as the chandelier started to shake again, the pointed crystals pointing out in all directions.

"Uh oh…" The six party members said together as the shards burst out from fixture, attacking everyone at once. Each shard didn't do much damage each, but a lot of them were launched at them all. Lanore took the most damage, being closest to the epicenter, getting gashes all over her body. Even Lucy's shield couldn't stop them all, resulting in her taking damage. Lolavina was feeling pretty confident when she saw the pointed crystals flying toward her, but the shield did nothing to stop them, the magical princess taking quite a bit of damage too.

* * *

"Hey! How come my shield didn't help!?" Lola asked indignantly.

"Sorry, Lola, but the spell only protects from evil. The animated objects are true neutral, so the attacks aren't stopped." Lincoln explained to her.

"Ah….nuts…" The pageant princess grumbled.

"Wait...so this alignment stuff can really matter?" Luna asked in surprise.

"Sometimes, apart from fitting character personalities. Some spells have effects and monsters have abilities that work better against good or evil, or even lawful or chaotic characters."

'Duly noted.' Lynn thought to herself. 'Wait...why would it matter to me? I'm never gonna play this stupid game...right?'

* * *

"Ugh…that hurt…" Lanore groaned, holding the deepest slash on her leg.

"Lovely goddess, spread your love to all these wounded heroes…" Lenina chanted, everyone nearby her being bathed in a holy light, healing them all a modest amount. The gnomish cleric smiled, pleased with how that worked, even if it didn't heal everyone completely.

"Cheers, luv." Lunaris said, giving her the thumbs up.

"Yeah, thanks." The draconian gal said appreciatively. "Now, I'm gonna pay this silver pest back in kind!" Lanore took hold of her sword in both hands and swung as hard as she could. The first swing connected solidly with the chain holding the chandelier up. The second swing...also struck home, severing through the links that held the metal fixture up. "...uh oh…" The dragonborn suddenly realized what was about to happen as both the chandelier and the ladder started to fall toward the ground, taking her with them. The tangle of silver fell right onto the immobile rug while Lanore fell off the ladder after it had hit the ground. She was dazed, but thankfully not harmed.

"You ok, Lanore me lassie?" Clyvor asked as he helped her up.

"Yeah...I think so...Just kinda rattled, is all…" The dragonborn animal master replied as she got to her feet and started to recover.

"Looks like it's over now." Lucinda commented with a sigh of relief. "Now, we just need to find Gizanoe…"

"We should probably split up to investigate." Clyvor suggested, putting his hammer away. "I'll lead the group searching the ground floor."

"And I'll lead the crew searching upstairs." Lanore offered.

"We'll meet back here in...about an hour, and search the basement, if there is one."

* * *

"This won't really take an hour, will it?" Lynn asked Lincoln, getting a little antsy.

"Probably not." He replied with a chuckle. "But investigations can take a little time."

"You see, Lynn, this game isn't all about bashing monsters, though it is a key element." Clyde started to explain. "There's a lot more to it. Puzzles and traps, diplomacy, mystery solving, character development, it all comes together to create a great adventure."

"So right now, we're looking for clues, right?" Lana inquired.

"Sure are."

"Great! This is the perfect time for Lanore to do some tracking." The handy gal exclaimed with joy.

"And if we find someone, I can question them." Lola added eagerly. "My ring of the silver tongue will make it so easy."

"Well, what are we waiting for, girls?" Luna asked with a grin. "The call to adventure comes!"

* * *

The six adventurers split up in the entry chamber, with Clyvor, Lunaris and Lucinda exploring the lower floor, and Lanore, Lenina, Lolavina, and Hops Sr searching upstairs. The first room they came across appeared to be a guest room, consisting of a pair of nice twin sized beds, a large wardrobe and dresser, a bronze candlestick, and a bedside table between the beds. There didn't appear to be anything out of the ordinary there, so they moved on. The next few rooms were more guest rooms, and a broom cupboard, which were also devoid of clues. The fourth room, however, was much larger than the others. An incredibly spacious master bedroom, with a large canopy bed, a large dresser opposite the bed, a desk in the corner completely covered in papers, books and spent quills, a nightstand equally littered with papers, and a comfy chair in the other back corner with a bronze candlestick on a tiny table beside it. "Wow. Here's a guy who does his homework." Lanore commented, looking at all the papers.

"Check them out. Maybe there's a clue among them." Lolavina instructed, moving over to the desk. Hops Sr watched the door, as he was a little too big to get in. While the Dragonborn and the Elf princess searched through all the papers, Lenina moved over to the bed. She gently prodded the mattress, discovering it was very soft. The gnomish healer smiled, then climbed right onto the bed, laying on her back.

"Mmmmm. This is so luxurious…"

"Lenina, this isn't the time to nap…" The golden haired princess objected, not even looking at the ditzy cleric. If she had, she would have noticed the blankets creeping up around Lenina.

"Hmmm. Looks like Gizanoe was hard at work on something up here…" Lanore commented as she looked at the papers. A few seemed to have diagrams of humanoid like beings, made of various other metals and materials. However, the ranger couldn't make heads or tails of them.

"Any idea what they mean?"

"Nope. You?"

"Not a clue." Lolavina replied with a sigh, picking up a few that looked important to her. Perhaps Lucinda could make sense of it. "Grab whatever you can. We'll try and figure it out later, when we regroup." The beast master nodded, putting whatever looked vital to her into her pack. With papers gathered, the two started to search the drawers of the dresser and nightstand. Meanwhile, the comforters on the bed had wrapped around Lenina on both sides. It wasn't crushing her, nor was it trying to hold her. It was actually really comfortable, so the cleric didn't really notice.

"Nothing here…" Lanore commented with frustration, closing the drawer on the nightstand.

"I found a key." The magical princess said, pulling an old, large brass key from the dresser. She quickly put it in her pocket, then turned back to their golden haired healer. "Well well, don't you look comfy…" She said with a disapproving look and tone. "All wrapped up and cozy."

"Wrapped up?" Lenina asked, looking down at the covers. "When did that happen?"

"Wait...you didn't do that?" Lanore asked. The somewhat oblivious gnome shook her head, which alarmed her fellow adventurers.

"Get off of there!" They exclaimed together, grabbing her by the legs and yanking her off the bed. The moment they did, the bed and covers reached out for her with pseudopod like limbs, desperate to get its hands on her.

* * *

"Dude...a mimic." Clyde said, looking to his friend. "Sneeeaky."

"It's like the whole house is a trap." Luna commented, looking down at the map. "Can't trust anything…"

"Well, I'm not letting this thing get us!" Lola snapped, rolling for initiative with Lana.

* * *

"I'll teach you to keep your...whatever those are, to yourself!" Lolavina yelled, raising her hand as it was surrounded by fire, while Lanore drew her scimitar. The living furniture suddenly snapped back to normal, except it was shaking like a leaf. "Scorch-!"

"No!" Lenina shouted, leaping between the princess and the mimic. Her sudden intrusion made Lolavina flinch, the spell fizzling.

"Lenina! What are you doing!?" The draconic ranger inquired.

"It doesn't mean any harm." The follower of Sune said, her arms spread. "Look at it...it's far more frightened of us than we are of it."

"That's debatable…" The Sugarland royal mumbled. The gnome paid her no mind, turning to walk over beside the bed. She gently stroked the surface of the bed in order to calm it.

"Sssshhh. Shhhh. It's ok. Nobody here is going to hurt you." She said in a sweet, soothing voice. The object imitating monster seemed to calm down, reaching a shapeless limb up to brush against her cheek. "Aww. You're just a big sweetie, aren't you?" The ranger and sorceress looked at one another for a moment, wondering if they were really seeing what they were. "You see? It's friendly." The cleric said, patting its limb tenderly.

* * *

"Really, Linc…?" Lynn asked, looking pretty disappointed. She was hoping for a good fight.

"What? I like to keep my players guessing." The white haired boy said with a smile and a shrug. "Some monsters are a threat, some aren't. But some players just see a monster and try and kill it."

"Huh...now I feel kind of bad I was about to chop it into wood chips…" Lana said, rubbing the back of her head, looking guilty.

"I like it. It's a nice change of pace, from something trying to hurt us to a snuggly kind of monster." Leni said with a bright smile. Now it was Lola's turn to look really sad. "Aww. Don't feel bad, Lola. We all make mistakes."

"It's not that…" She replied, looking up at her brother. "...now I want a snuggly bed…" Lincoln couldn't help but chuckle at this adorable display.

"Well, save up your coins and maybe we can arrange something." He said to her, hoping it would get her spirits back up, and it seemed to work alright.

* * *

"Huh...that's certainly something you don't see every day." Lanore said, putting her weapon away. "I wonder where he got it…"

"Or made it, if he's really that clever." Lolavina pointed out. "And why?"

"Well, if Gizanoe lives here all by himself, I'm sure it's nice to have such a cuddly creature to keep him company." Lenina suggested, the pseudopod nodding.

"Yeah. I could see that."

"And it could protect him in his sleep too, since no one would expect a bed to fight back." Lanore theorized. "You know, if that's the case...maybe it knows what happened to Gizanoe."

"Good thinking." Lolavina said with a smile. "Lenina, you've already bonded with it. Why don't you try talking to it?"

"Sure." The kindly gnome said, focusing on the bed again. "Do you know what happened to Mr Gizanoe?" The lump of blanket nodded to her. "What happened to him?" The mimic started to wiggle, squirming around in an incomprehensible manner. "Uh...I'm not sure I understand."

"Perhaps we should stick to yes or no questions." The humanoid dragon gal suggested, as the imitator monster kinda slumped sadly.

"Ok. Uh...is he still in the house?" The comforter started to nod, but then shook as if to say no. "Yes and no?"

"Was Gizanoe attacked or kidnapped?" Lolavina asked, getting a shake from the mimic.

"So he is safe at least." Lanore deducted. "And might be somewhere in the house. Can you tell us where to find him?" Another shake. "Do you know where he is?" The mimic nodded.

"So it knows, but can't say? Is it a secret?" Lenina inquired, getting one last nod from the creature.

"Sounds like he's in hiding." The scaled ranger said. "Well, we're a bit further along than when we started."

"Yeah...Lanore, do you think you could find some way to track him from here?" The elven princess asked as Lenina pet the mimic for all its help.

"I could try. It's not as easy inside a house as it is out in nature…" She replied before she started to search the floor for clues.

* * *

While all this was going on, Clyvor, Lunaris and Lucinda were exploring the ground floor of the manor. Much like the adventurer's exploring the upper level, they didn't have much luck at first. A storage closet with a few brooms, a dining room the size of a banquet hall complete with an extremely long, ornate table, and a drawing room with next to nothing in it. Then, they came across a door on either side of the hall. Against their better judgement, they decided to split up; Lucinda and Lunaris went to the left, Clyvor to the right. The moment the necromancer opened the door, her eyes widened under all her hair. They had come across Gizanoe's library: easily the second largest room in the house. The walls were completely lined with bookshelves filled with books. There was a second level platform leading around the room, accessed by a spiral staircase from the ground floor, and a doorway on the second floor. The floor was covered by a giant red and gold area rug, with a few easy chairs on the far end of the room besides tables with reading light candles, as well as the biggest writing desk either of them had ever seen, shut tight by the look of it. The wizard looked about with pure wonder on her face, the drow bard sticking close to her. "Wow...this guy loved his books."

"I don't even know where to start…" Lucinda commented, her eyes scanning the shelves.

"I guess just pick a book and brow-" Lunaris started to say, pulling one random book from the shelves. However, when she opened it, she found it was completely blank on the inside. "...what the?"

"What is it?"

"There's nothing written in this one…" The half elf raised an eyebrow (not that it showed) and picked one of the other books from the same shelf.

"Same with this one…" The pale spellcaster moved to another bookshelf and tried a tome from that set. Inside, she found a beginner's guide to creation spells; an instructional book on crafting items and constructs on the most basic level. "Hmmm. This one has writing in it."

"This one too." The drow musician pointed out as she tried a different shelf.

"Curious...it seems only that shelf has books without text." Lucinda commented, looking back to that one towering book holder. "I wonder why…"

"One way to find out." The twin blade carrying bard said, as she started to pull book after book off the shelf. While she was doing that, Lucinda continued to flip through the guide in her hand. She couldn't resist, plus she could possibly get a little insight on Gizanoe. The pile of knowledge devoid books started to grow as the lady drow continued her search. She was about halfway through the lot when she found something: a book hidden in a secret compartment. "'Ello. What's all this then?"

"Did you find something, Lunaris?" The raven haired necromancer inquired, turning away from the book she was looking into.

"I bet I did." She answered, pulling the leather bound tome from its place. The moment she had, however, they both heard the fluttering of pages behind them. The two adventurers turned to see a flock of flapping books in the air, looking like a colony of bats. They all suddenly swooped down upon them, smacking into their heads, arms and bodies before flapping away from them. "Ow! Ouch! Bug off, you bloody chuffers!" Lunaris shouted, trying to swat the airborne volumes.

"Ow! This must be some kind of failsafe. The book must be vital." Lucinda theorized, holding her hand up. Her ring of force shield created an almost invisible barrier between her and the few books, repelling them. However, the majority of them were attacking her ally, slamming into her left, right and center.

"Ouch! Ouch! That's it!" The bard snapped, dropping the codex to the ground and drawing her twin blades.

"Magic missile!" The young wizard chanted, sending torrents of force darts into the books of blank pages. Fortunately, each projectile was able to down an animated object each time. Lunaris followed suite, torn pages filling the air with each slash of her swords. However, there were still many more books in the swarm, and, though their hit and run tactics weren't very damaging, their sheer numbers made it add up quickly.

* * *

"Gah. This is rough…" Luna said, frowning as her hp total fell below half. "And it's only the first round of combat…"

"Maybe we shouldn't have split up." Clyde said in a worried tone.

"Don't suppose you have a plan, Luce?" The eight year old goth looked at the board before her, specifically the figure of their opponent: a cluster of books.

"I think so." She replied, looking toward her DM brother. "Lincoln, swarm enemies count as a single entity, right?"

"Technically, it is. At least in my eyes." He answered.

"Then yes. I have a plan."

* * *

A few more hostile volumes slam against Lucinda's force shield as she raised her hand toward the swirling mass of hardbacks. "Dispel Magic!" She bellowed, a brilliant flash of light emitting from her hand. As it shone over the many books, they froze in place until they all fell down.

"...bloody brilliant, Lucinda." The drow bard said, putting her swords away. She was kind of bruised from the brief pummeling she had received, and the half elf had a few paper cuts from the few books that had managed to pass her shield. "Here. Let me tend our wounds." She said, putting a hand on her friend's shoulder, and the other over her heart, "Let the music heal your soul!" The bard chanted, healing energies going through her hands into the both of them. Lucinda's few cuts recovered in an instant, and Lunaris looked much better now (though not fully healed).

"Thanks." The pale lady responded with a light smile before her friend picked up the dropped book. "...let's get out of here before those books get back up again."

"I second that." The musician said, leaving with all haste with her ally. The moment they emerged, Clyvor had emerged from the room across the way. He was backing out of the room, his hammer in hand.

"Clyvor?" Lucinda inquired, just as a clay creature twice their size stomped to the door the barbarian had just backed out of. He crouched down to pass through the doorway, looking down at the trio with carved eyes. Apart from its face, which had the details of a neanderthal man, it was almost entirely a featureless mass of hardened clay. Lucinda and Lunaris gasped and braced themselves for a fight.

"...pardon me, sir, madams…" The constructed spoke in a gravely, yet polite voice, which surprised the group. His mouth doesn't move at all, though the voice still rang out from it. "...but please do put those away. The master does not approve of weapons being drawn within his home."

"Oh...sorry." The dark skinned dwarf replied, putting his weapon away, just like his bardic ally. "Ye just startled me, creeping up all quiet like."

"Ah. My apologies, my good man. Now then, do you have business with Master Gizanoe?"

"We do." Lunaris answered, stepping forward to interact with the earthen monster. "I'm afraid we cannot go into details with anyone other than Gizanoe."

"I understand, ma'am. However, I am afraid the master is frightfully busy." The golem replied, almost emotionlessly. "And he would be most displeased if he were interrupted in this stage of his research."

"I'm afraid we must insist." The half elf wizard replied, with only barely more emotion than the living lump before them.

"Very well, ma'am. If you wish to wait for the master, you are free to do so. However, I cannot promise he will return any time soon."

"Return? Where is he iffin he isn't here?" Clyvor asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I am not at liberty to discuss that, sir." The construct servant answered before turning back. "Now, if you will excuse me, I must return to the kitchen. Good day, sir, ladies." The man like being of clay said before he departed.

"So Gizanoe isn't in the house…" The drow bard mused aloud, arms crossed in front of her.

"Where could he be then?" The barbarian wondered, looking up and down the hall.

"Perhaps there's a clue in that book we found." Lucinda commented, turning to the dual sword wielder. "May I?"

"Be my guest, guv." Lunaris handed the tome over to the wizard, who opened it up and started to look through its pages.

"...fascinating…" She said quietly. "It's a journal by Gizanoe, describing his work, past and recent."

"Really? Bonus." The magical musician said with a smile.

"Quite. It seems like his recent works have been toward the creation of living constructs, much like what we just encountered recently." Lucinda explained, flipping through pages. "Starting with the animated objects, and working up to golems. That clay golem seemed to be one of his latest experiments…"

"Did a mighty good job on it; at least with bringing it to life." Clyvor commented before he criticized. "Can't say much for the design…"

"He seemed less than satisfied too." The raven haired spellcaster continued, her eyes glued to the pages. "He doesn't really specify why, but he says he felt that something was missing from his creations. That he would be returning to his lab to figure it out...that was the latest entry."

"So the fella's in his lab, eh?" The bold and mighty dwarf said, stroking his beard. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's find this lab of his."

* * *

Meanwhile, Lanore was starting to follow the trail (or what she believed to be the trail) of the missing gnome inventor, tailed closely by her amphibian friend, the elf princess and gnomish priestess. The tracks were only barely visible, thanks to specks of dried ink, and led the group back to the entry room, down the stairs, and through the passage on the opposite side of where the second group had ventured. This hall was dark and mostly barren, save for one door at the end of the hall to the left. It was larger than any of them, reinforced with iron, with a large metal door handle and lock. "Well...this is where I think the trail leads." Lanore said, looking up at the door.

"Even if it's not, it looks important." Lolavina commented, trying to open the door. However, she couldn't get it to budge in the slightest. "Of course...locked."

"...and none of us has any skill at unlocking...great." The draconic beast master groaned in frustration.

"So what do we do now?" Lenina asked, looking to the ranger and sorceress.

"...well, I found a key upstairs in Gizanoe's room." The blonde spell slinger said, pulling out the brass key. They didn't have any other ideas, so they decided to give it a try. Lolavina put the key into the hole, tried to turn it and...click. The door unlocked with ease. "Well, that was easy…" ("...and that scares me." Lola admitted, and she looked like it.) It took both Lanore and Lenina to push the door open. Inside was a large alchemy lab, so crowded with tables of equipment that only one of gnomish size could effectively get around. Beakers, flasks, vials, glass tubes, mortars and pestles, books, paper; each table as disorganized a mess as the desk upstairs. Everything was covered in a layer of dust, with jars of old, rotted reagents on the far wall. "Ugh...what a slob…"

"Guess neatness doesn't really count when it comes to tinkering." Lanore commented as the two of them entered the laboratory. What they didn't see was an alcove right by the door, with a man sized, ornate suit of plate armor, holding a steel longsword in its hands at rest. Behind it was a large iron shield. To either side, in small indents along the walls were wood and brass ballista with ornate dragon heads where the darts were launched from. The eyes on the dragon heads of the bolt throwers turned to look at the trio of intruders as they crossed the threshold, just like the helmeted head of the armor. The giant frog stood watch at the door, making sure nothing tried to ambush them from outside. "Looks like no one has been here in ages…"

"Strange...you would think an alchemist would be in his lab every day…" The elven princess mused as she carefully tried to move through the room, trying not to knock over anything.

"Maybe he's been in hiding for a long time?" Lenina suggested.

"Possible…" The princess replied softly before moving over to the desk by the spoiled ingredients to look at the notes, as Lanore looked at the materials scattered across the many tables. While they were investigating, Lenina felt a sharp prick of pain in her arm.

"Ow!" She squeaked and winced, holding her arm. A small dart was stuck to her. Before any of them could find out what happened, two more darts flew through the air at Lanore. The first bounced off her armor, but the second pierced her leg and scales.

"Agh! Where'd that come from!?" The ranger asked angrily, pulling the dart out of her leg.

"I don't know…" Lolavina answered, turning around. The moment she did, she screamed at the sight of the towering metal armor striding out of the alcove, glowing red energy where a person's limbs and face would be if someone were wearing them. It grabbed the shield behind it, its focus right on Lenina. It stepped toward her, slamming a table aside with its shield, shattering all the glass objects on it. Lanore drew her curved sword, ready to rush into combat, but Hops Sr made the first move. He sprang into the room and headbutt the enchanted metal construct from behind. The animated threat didn't even flinch from the back strike, ignoring Hops Sr.

Following the heroic frog's charge, a fourth dart flew from the wall right beside Lolavina, aimed at Lenina's back. Fortunately, it missed the gnome cleric. Even more fortunate, the fire flinging elf saw where it came from. "So...that's where that little pest is." She commented with a grin. "Magic missile!" She exclaimed, pointing her hand at the little hidey hole of the living dart thrower. A single force burst was enough to shatter the unseen threat, so she focused the rest of her attack on the armor. However, when the bolts struck it, they just fizzled upon contact.

* * *

"Lincoln." Lynn growled through gritted teeth. "Explain. Now." She was NOT happy with her brother. Lola was upset as well, but right now, she was more surprised by the intervention.

"That's no normal armor, Lynn. It's much more powerful." The white haired DM explained, shrinking behind his screen. "It has resistances...and immunities." He ducked down completely, preparing for the worst. However, his sporty sister simply limped around the table, grabbed him by the collar and pulled him up where everyone could see him

"Magic immunity!? How is that fair!? What kind of game are you running here, Stinklon!?" She yelled at him right into his face.

"Magic immunity? Oh no no!" Lincoln responded hastily, shaking his head so quickly, he almost made himself dizzy. "It's not completely magic immune. Just...just to certain spells. One of them happened to be magic missile…"

"Lynn, let him go…" Clyde said nervously, which got the attention of the furious brunette. "It'll be fine. Our group should be able to hear the commotion, we'll be right there to help them...together we can take it."

"Yeah. What he said." Luna agreed with a firm nod. "Let the little dude go, and let us go with the flow. Every little thing will be alright in the end." The hot tempered teen looked between her sister and the little glasses wearing nerd at the table for a moment before she released her brother and returned to her own seat.

"What was that about?" Lucy inquired quietly, leaning back to speak with her roommate. She smirked a bit before continuing. "Getting invested in the game?"

"What? No. I'm not interested in such a nerd game…" Lynn quietly denied, glaring at her little sister. "I...I just care about fair play is all, and this doesn't seem fair at all."

"Of course you do." The little goth replied, still smirking in a smart aleck manner as she returned to her original position, looking at the situation on the map. She couldn't deny that this was a bad situation; a more powerful suit of animated armor, with immunity to magic missile, possibly other spells, and resistances that they didn't know about yet. Add onto that hidden enemies hurling darts at them, and she knew this battle wasn't going to be easy. Their group would have to move quick to get there, or Lanore, Lolavina and Lenina will get cut to ribbons...

* * *

_AN: Lunaris_

_Drow College of Lore Bard level 5_

_Str: 8 Dex: 17 Con: 10 Int: 13 Wis: 13 Cha: 18_

_Weapon: Dual short swords, short bow Armor: Studded Leather_

_Prof Skills: Perform, Insight, History, Athletics, Acrobatics, Perception_

_Favored spells: Utility spells, music or sound based spells, charisma based spells_


End file.
